China to build military facilities on South China Sea islets CHUN HAN WONG THE WALL STREET JOURNAL JUNE 17, 2015

China to build military facilities on South China Sea islets

• CHUN HAN WONG 
• THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
• JUNE 17, 2015 7:20AM

Photos by satellite-imagery provider DigitalGlobe shows what is believed to be Chinese vessels dredging sand at Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

China said it is shifting work on disputed South China Sea islets from the dredging of land to the construction of military and other facilities as it pushes forward with a program that has aggravated tensions with the US and neighbours.

In a statement on its website, China’s Foreign Ministry said land reclamation on some islands and reefs in the Spratlys chain “will be completed in the upcoming days” as planned. Beijing will then proceed to build facilities on those features that will serve military and civilian purposes, the statement said.

Analysts say the imminent end to China’s island-building work could signal a willingness to seek compromise with Washington and rival claimants in the South China Sea, even as it demonstrates Beijing’s ability to unilaterally dictate terms in the longstanding dispute.

“This is a step toward halting land reclamation, which the U.S. has demanded, and at the same time, China can tell its people that it has accomplished what it wanted to do,” said Huang Jing, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

“China unilaterally started the land reclamation and now China is unilaterally stopping it,” Mr Huang said. “China is showing that — as a major power — it can control escalation, that it has the initiative, and that it can do what it sees fit for its interests.”

Beijing lays claim to almost the entire South China Sea, a stretch of resource-rich waters that carries more than half the world’s trade. Its claims overlap with those of Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines — several of whom have criticised China’s rapid and extensive construction program in the Spratlys as the latest in a series of aggressive Chinese efforts to assert territorial rights.

According to US estimates, China has expanded artificial reefs in the Spratlys to as much as 2,000 acres of land, up from 500 acres last year. US officials have said that China’s island-building program includes transforming semi-submerged reefs into forward bases with airfields fit for military use, while U.S. surveillance recently detected two motorised artillery pieces on one of the Chinese-controlled artificial islands.

Other claimants to the Spratlys — including Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines — have all expanded the geographical features they control, but not as quickly as China, analysts say.

The Philippines’ Foreign Ministry said it is awaiting official confirmation from Beijing on its Tuesday statement, while the Vietnamese and Malaysian foreign ministries and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Washington says it doesn’t take sides in the South China Sea disputes, but that it has an interest in maintaining freedom of navigation in the area. To this end, the Obama administration is considering ways to challenge the island-building campaign, weighing whether to deploy Navy vessels or aircraft close the islands to signal to China that it can’t close off international waters.

China’s Foreign Ministry again defended the building work as “lawful, reasonable and justified” activity conducted within its sovereign territory.

“They are not targeted at any other country [and] do not affect the freedom of navigation and overflight enjoyed by all countries in accordance with international law in the South China Sea,” ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in the statement.

While the artificial islands do serve military needs, their main purpose is to facilitate non-combat and civilian activity, such as maritime search and rescue, disaster relief, scientific research and environmental protection, Mr Lu said.

The timing of China’s statement, meanwhile, showed that Beijing is conducting the building program “in accordance with its own timetable and plan [and] reflects transparency in China’s relevant policies,” Ruan Zongze, executive vice president of the Foreign Ministry-affiliated China Institute of International Studies, told state broadcaster CCTV in a televised interview.

China’s statement came on the final day for Beijing to submit comments to an international arbitration tribunal that is considering the Philippines’ territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague will hold a hearing next month on whether it has jurisdiction in the matter and whether Manila’s claims are admissible for arbitration. The appeal to the court has angered Beijing, which has said it would neither accept nor participate in the process, arguing that the tribunal lacks jurisdiction over the dispute.

Trefor Moss in Manila, Vu Trong Khanh in Hanoi and Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this article.