Beijing yesterday warned that it would “firmly oppose” infringement of its sovereignty after indications Washington will soon send warships close to its artificial islands in the South China Sea.
Tensions have mounted since China transformed reefs in the area — also claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei — into small islands capable of supporting military facilities, a move that the US says threatens freedom of navigation.
Senior officials in Washington have signaled that the US military could sail close by the islands in the coming days or weeks to demonstrate that Washington does not recognize a Chinese claim to territorial waters around them.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said that the country respected freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, but would “firmly oppose infringement of sovereignty under that pretext.”
Beijing insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters close to the coasts of other states.
The sea is a strategically vital waterway with shipping lanes through which about one-third of all the world’s traded oil passes, and the dispute has raised fears of clashes.
An editorial in the Global Times, which is close to the Chinese Communist Party, condemned Washington’s “ceaseless provocations and coercion.”
“China mustn’t tolerate rampant US violations of China’s adjacent waters and the skies over those expanding islands,” it said, adding that its military should “be ready to launch countermeasures according to Washington’s level of provocation.”
Coming within 12 nautical miles (22km) of the islands could be a “breach of China’s bottom line,” the paper said, adding: “If the US encroaches on China’s core interests, the Chinese military will stand up and use force to stop it.”
Satellite images of the islands published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies show that China has reclaimed millions of square meters of land in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
The imagery also shows China has built a host of facilities, including as many as three runways, at least one of them 3,000m long.
On Saturday, China said work had finished on two lighthouses in the disputed area and pledged more construction, which it says is intended to serve civilian, as well as military purposes.
The work has been seen as an attempt by Beijing to assert its territorial claims by establishing physical facts in the water, although international law says they can only arise from naturally occurring geographic features.
In May, video taken by CNN during a surveillance flight by a US P-8 Poseidon showed Chinese naval forces warning the US aircraft away from the artificial islands.
A tense broadcast from Chinese forces in the area, warned the craft, which remained outside the limit, to “please go away ... to avoid misunderstanding.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS