U.S. Rebukes China on Efforts to Build Artificial Islands

U.S. Rebukes China on Efforts to Build Artificial Islands

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — A day after China laid out its vision for a navy that can project power into the open seas, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Wednesday criticized Beijing’s efforts to build artificial islands in the South China Sea, making it clear that the United States would not be deterred by Chinese claims to newly built territories.

Though American officials have long insisted that the Obama administration’s so-called pivot or rebalance toward Asia is not aimed at one country, Mr. Carter’s comments left little doubt that Washington shared the concerns of other Asian nations about China’s growing military presence in disputed areas of the South China Sea, and the increasingly assertive posture of its forces in disputed waters around Asia.

The South China Sea is especially sensitive. It is bisected by vital shipping lanes that connect Asia to the Middle East and Europe, and China’s efforts to create artificial islands and build military structures on reefs and other outcroppings have alarmed the Philippines, a close American ally, and other countries, like Vietnam and Malaysia.

“China’s actions are bringing countries in the region together in new ways. And they’re increasing demand for American engagement,” Mr. Carter said during a ceremony at the naval base at Pearl Harbor marking a change of command of United States forces in the Pacific. “We’re going to meet it. We will remain the principal security power in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.”

American defense officials say that international law does not recognize Chinese claims of sovereignty over artificial territories reclaimed from the sea. And Mr. Carter, apparently in a warning to China, said Wednesday that American forces would not respect territorial claims that they considered illegitimate.

“There should be no mistake about this: The United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as we do all around the world,” he said.

At issue is more than an abstract legal dispute: The Pentagon is weighing how aggressively it should send aircraft and warships into what it considers international waters. An American surveillance jet last week flew near Fiery Cross Reef, a contested atoll in the Spratly Islands where China has been dredging in recent months. Chinese forces repeatedly ordered the American aircraft to leave the area, and China’s Foreign Ministry later characterized the flight as “irresponsible and dangerous.”

At the same time, China appears to be pushing ahead with its building spree in the disputed waters. On Tuesday, Chinese state news media announced that construction had begun on two new lighthouses in the Spratly Islands, adding to the growing number of structures that satellite images indicate China is building, including airstrips.

Mr. Carter added that the United States favored “a peaceful resolution to all disputes, and a halt to land reclamation by any claimant.”

Mr. Carter is en route to Singapore to attend an annual security meeting known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, which begins Friday. There, he said, “I’ll call for the region to strengthen its security institutions and relationships to ensure we can maintain lasting peace and stability in a region undergoing significant change.”

NYT

Chinese Weapons Spotted on Disputed Island, U.S. Says

SINGAPORE — The United States has spotted a pair of mobile artillery vehicles on an artificial island that China is building in the South China Sea, a resource-rich stretch of ocean crossed by vital shipping lanes, American officials said.

China’s construction program on previously uninhabited atolls and reefs in the Spratly Islands has already raised alarm and drawn protests from other countries in the region, whose claims to parts of the South China Sea overlap China’s.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter called this week for China to halt the construction, saying that international law did not recognize Chinese claims of sovereignty over the new territories and that American warships and military aircraft would continue to operate in the area.

The artillery was spotted by satellites and surveillance aircraft about a month ago, and the two vehicles have since been either hidden or removed, according to an American official who spoke about intelligence matters on the condition of anonymity. The official added that even if the weapons remain on the island, they pose no threat to American naval forces or aircraft in the region, though the guns could reach some nearby islands claimed by other countries.

With Mr. Carter in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-profile annual Asian security meeting that Chinese officials are also attending, American officials were reluctant to publicly discuss the intelligence they had collected about the artillery.

Brent Colburn, a spokesman traveling with Mr. Carter, would say only that the United States was aware of the weapons, whose detection was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized China’s deployment of artillery on the island as “a disturbing development and escalatory development.”

“Their actions are in violation of international law, and their actions are going to be condemned by everyone in the world,” Mr. McCain was quoted by Reuters as saying in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he stopped on Friday on his way to Singapore for the security conference.

“We are not going to have a conflict with China,” he said, “but we can take certain measures which will be a disincentive to China to continue these kinds of activities.”

There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials about the weapons.

A top Chinese military official, Adm. Sun Jianguo, is scheduled to speak at the conference in Singapore about Chinese military policies. Admiral Sun, the deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, which includes the navy, will lead the strongest delegation of military officials that China has yet sent to the annual forum.

China released a military strategy document earlier this week that, for the first time, called for its navy to project force beyond its coastal waters into the open oceans. Western officials said because of its timing, the document seemed intended as a challenge to other participants in the conference.

The heightened tensions between the United States and China over the South China Sea were on display last week when the United States sent a surveillance plane close to Fiery Cross Reef, which China has built into an island with a runway that military aircraft can use. The Chinese told the American plane to leave the area, according to a CNN television crew that was aboard the flight at the Pentagon’s invitation.

When an American littoral combat ship, the Fort Worth, conducted a weeklong patrol of waters near the Spratly Islands, including Fiery Cross Reef, a Chinese guided missile frigate, the Yancheng, followed the American vessel for a time, the Pentagon announced. Other American warships will conduct similar patrols, which will be the “new normal” for the Navy in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said.

China has said that it was building the artificial islands in the sea largely for civilian purposes, but it has not denied that it also envisions a military role for them.

In April, Hua Chunying, the spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, told reporters that the islands would be used to aid the country’s defense, though she did not provide details. “Such constructions are within China’s sovereignty and are fair, reasonable, lawful and do not affect nor target any country, and are beyond reproach,” she said.

The United States disagrees, and American officials have stressed in recent days that the American-dominated security order in the region should be respected because it has brought calm and prosperity.

The implication is that China is threatening to upend that system, but the American officials have hesitated to say so directly, preferring to talk in generalities about all countries needing to find diplomatic solutions to their disputes in the South China Sea.

Still, American officials have not been shy about pointing out that China has created roughly 2,000 acres of new land in the South China Sea, three quarters of it this year. The United States has also released video images taken by surveillance aircraft showing Chinese ships and dredges building runways and harbors on remote outcroppings in the sea.

NYT

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