Leading US senators expressed alarm on Thursday at the scale and speed of China’s land reclamation in the South China Sea and said a formal US strategy was needed to slow or stop the work.
In a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Republican Senators John McCain and Bob Corker and Democrats Jack Reed and Bob Menendez said that without a comprehensive strategy, “long-standing interests of the United States, as well as our allies and partners, stand at considerable risk.”
They said China’s land reclamation and construction in the South China Sea’s Spratly archipelago (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) gives it the potential to expand its military reach and is “a direct challenge, not only to the interests of the United States and the region, but to the entire international community.”
The letter said Gaven Reef (Nansyun, 南薰礁) had grown about 114,000m2 in size in the past year and previously submerged Johnson Reef (Chigua Reef, 赤瓜礁) was now a 100,000m2 “island.” Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑礁) has increased in size more than 11-fold since August last year.
“While other states have built on existing land masses, China is changing the size, structure and physical attributes of land features themselves,” the letter said. “This is a qualitative change that appears designed to alter the status quo in the South China Sea.”
It said any attempt by China to militarize the artificial islands could have “serious consequences” and could embolden Beijing to declare a new air defense zone in the South China Sea.
The senators, who head the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the strategy should lay out “specific actions the United States can take to slow down or stop China’s reclamation activities.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊), when asked about the letter, said China’s activities in the South China Sea were “fair, reasonable and legal.”
“We have a right to do this,” Hong added, without elaborating.
China claims about 90 percent of the potentially energy rich South China Sea. Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines also have overlapping claims.
Chinese reclamation work is well advanced on six Spratly reefs and workers are building ports and fuel storage depots and possibly two airstrips. Experts say this will not overturn US regional military superiority, but could allow Beijing to project power deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS