China appears to be deploying weapons systems on all seven of the reefs it has reclaimed in the South China Sea, according to photographs released by a Washington-based think tank.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said it began tracking in June and July the construction of identical hexagon-shaped structures to house the weapons on Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑島), Mischief Reef (Meiji Reef, 美濟礁) and Subi Reef (Jhubi Reef, 渚碧礁), where China has already completed military grade airstrips and installed radar.
“It now seems that these structures are an evolution of point-defense fortifications already constructed at China’s smaller facilities on Gaven [Nansyun, 南薰礁], Hughes [東門礁], Johnson [South] [Chigua Reef, 赤瓜礁] and Cuarteron [Huayang Reef, 華陽礁] reefs,” the unit of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said on its Web site.
Photo: AFP / CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative / DigitalGlobe
The installations call into question a pledge made by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not to militarize the disputed islands in the South China Sea, a US$5 trillion-a-year shipping route that the US has patrolled largely unchallenged since World War II.
China’s claims to more than 80 percent of the waters were dismissed by an international tribunal in July. Beijing said it would ignore the ruling.
US president-elect Donald Trump has cited what he said was China’s effort to build a “massive fortress” in the South China Sea as one reason for taking a more confrontational approach to relations.
He listed the project in a Fox News interview, while defending his decision to accept a telephone call from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), calling into question the US’ “one China” policy.
“I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Trump said in the interview broadcast on Sunday.
The think tank said that anti-aircraft guns appear to have been installed on China’s four smaller reefs. Although they cannot be definitively identified, they were likely to be close-in weapons systems (CIWS) whose function was to detect and destroy incoming missiles and enemy aircraft, the group said.
“These gun and probable CIWS emplacements show that Beijing is serious about defense of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea,” it wrote. “Among other things, they would be the last line of defense against cruise missiles launched by the United States or others against these soon-to-be-operational air bases.”
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