China building runway
on Spratlys
BEIJING — China is building a concrete runway on an island in contested waters of the South China Sea that will be capable of handling military aircraft, satellite images released yesterday showed.
The first section of the runway appears like a piece of gray ribbon on an image taken last month of Fiery Cross Reef, which is part of the Spratly Islands, an archipelago claimed by at least three other countries. Adjacent to the runway, work is under way on an apron for taxiing and parking planes.
The runway, which is expected to be about 3km long — enough to accommodate fighter jets and surveillance aircraft — represents a game changer in the competition between Washington and Beijing in the South China Sea, said strategic studies professor Peter Dutton at the US Naval War College in Rhode Island.
“In order to have sea control, you need to have air control,” Professor Dutton said.
Analysts had speculated that China planned to build an airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef, but the satellite image from March 23, provided by Airbus and released yesterday by Jane’s Defence Weekly, is the first hard evidence that it is doing so.
In time, Prof Dutton said, China is likely to install radar and missiles that could intimidate smaller countries such as the Philippines, an American ally, and Vietnam, which also has claims to the Spratlys, as they resupply their modest military garrisons in the area. More broadly, he said, a landing strip for fighter and surveillance aircraft will vastly expand China’s zone of competition with the United States in the South China Sea.
The construction on Fiery Cross Reef is part of a larger Chinese reclamation project involving dredgers on at least five islands in the South China Sea, converting tiny reefs into islands big enough to handle military hardware, personnel and recreation facilities for workers.
Satellite images of the reclamation efforts have been released in steady doses over the past few months, as smaller countries with claims over islands in the area have voiced concerns about China’s accelerated construction and as the US has stepped up its criticism.
During his recent first trip to Asia as Defence Secretary, Mr Ashton Carter said in Japan that the reclamation efforts were seriously aggravating tensions between Beijing and Washington and hurting the prospects for diplomatic solutions.
After Mr Carter’s remarks, images were released of Mischief Reef, also in the Spratlys, showing large-scale dredging of sand to create land mass.
The construction on Fiery Cross Reef, several hundred kilometres west of Mischief Reef, appears to have taken place within the past several weeks. An image taken by Airbus on Feb 6 showed empty sand where the runway is now being built.
China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement last week that the reclamation efforts were intended to serve civilian purposes, such as providing a base for search-and-rescue operations, but also for “satisfying the need of necessary military defence”. Though the statement placed more emphasis on the non-military goals, it was a rare acknowledgment of Chinese military intentions in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea, based on a so-called nine-dash line drawn around the waterway by China in the late 1940s. No other country recognises the validity of the nine-dash line and many fear that Beijing’s reclamation activities are part of a drive to create an inevitability about Chinese ownership. THE NEW YORK TIMES
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments always welcome!