China’s new reef bases add an edge to Xi Jinping’s forthcoming US visit

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/south-china-sea-xi-jinping-obama

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China appears to be taking new steps to build airfields on two reefs in a disputed area of the South China Sea on the eve of President Xi Jinping’s arrival in Washington for a state visit on 24 September.

Commercial satellite photos taken on 8 September for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) show that China is flattening, rolling and putting gravel down on an area the size of a military runway on Subi Reef, a once submerged shoal. The flattened area is about 60 metres wide and more than 2km long, but is expected to grow and be covered with asphalt next, say China experts who saw the photos.

Related: What’s behind Beijing’s drive to control the South China Sea? | Howard W French

On Mischief Reef, China has also completed – and starting pouring landfill into – a retaining wall in a nearly 3km-long rectangular space identical to what was built and filled in earlier on Subi Reef and on Woody Island, where an airfield has been completed, the China experts say.

The new construction seems certain to strain the meeting between Xi and President Barack Obama, whose national security adviser, Susan Rice, was recently in Beijing for talks. The US has urged China to stop work in the region, and China had said in August that it would stop reclamation work on the islands. But the photos show that construction continues.

The 8 September commercial satellite photos were taken for CSIS. Separately, a 3 September satellite photo was posted on The Diplomat news website last Thursday showing the same developments. “When the Chinese government said it had mainly finished the work, it clearly hadn’t,” said Michael Green, a senior vice-president at CSIS and formerly senior director for Asian affairs at the national security council under President George W Bush.

“This is a challenge for the White House,” Green added. “How do they talk about this? Do they say don’t militarise these islands, knowing that the Chinese will do it anyway? Do they say don’t continue construction when it’s obvious that it will continue anyway? It’s a real dilemma for the White House.”

Green said Chinese officials have told him in private they intend to militarise the reefs and islands with planes, anti-aircraft weapons and naval vessels. He said that would allow their air force to have “overlapping air control over the South China Sea, not just from one airfield but from three.”

He added: “It won’t stop the US policy of asserting freedom of navigation, but it makes it a lot more complicated operation.”

Commander Bill Urban, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “We note China’s August statement that it has halted its reclamation. At the same time, China has also stated its intent to further construct facilities, including for the purpose of military defence. It’s not clear to us that they’ve stopped, and we will continue to watch that situation very closely.”

But “the only way to ease tensions is to stop unilateral, destabilising actions”, he added. “China’s stated intentions with its programme, and continued construction, will not reduce tensions or lead to a meaningful diplomatic solution.”

Though the Obama administration has urged China to halt preparations for bases in the South China Sea, Beijing shows no sign of slackening. China claims sovereignty over the entire South China Sea, while its neighbours – Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan – have rival claims. The Obama administration has urged China to settle those claims peacefully through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The new construction comes as political criticism in the US has mounted over Xi’s visit. Several Republican presidential hopefuls have said that the state dinner with Xi should be cancelled because of disagreements over the South China Sea, cyberspace hacking, new restrictive laws on nongovernmental organisations in China, theft of intellectual property and disagreements over human rights.

The Senate armed services committee featuring testimony by David Shear, the US assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, and Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command.

“If China is building two additional airfields at Subi and Mischief Reefs, it demonstrates two things. First, that the reclamation has continued despite Beijing’s claims to the contrary. And second, it shows Beijing’s clear intention to militarise the Spratly Islands with airpower using three different man-made islands,” Senate armed services committee chairman John McCain said in a statement. “Along with radars and surface-to-air missiles, this will give China the capability to enforce an air defence identification zone, and hold the waters of the South China Sea at risk should it choose to do so.”

The new Chinese construction also coincides with an unprecedented voyage by five Chinese navy ships through the Bering Sea, close to Alaska’s shores while Obama was visiting the state earlier this month. A US expert on the Chinese military, who asked for anonymity to protect working relationships, said that the ships were probably on their way back from exercises held with Russian vessels in the Mediterranean. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on 3 September that “these ships were operating in international waters, and there is no indication that their activities were threatening to the United States in any way.”

It’s no surprise that the scope and pace of building man-made islands raise serious questions about Chinese intentions.

The Pentagon has taken the lead in criticising China’s activities in the South China and East China seas. Although other countries have occupied atolls in the area from time to time, China’s size and ambitions have dwarfed the others’ actions.

Earlier in the year defence secretary Ashton Carter sharply criticised China’s activities, noting the large amount of commercial shipping in the South China Sea. Construction on the reefs also endangers the area’s marine ecosystem, environmental groups say.

In a July meeting at the Aspen Security Forum, Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, said that “China is changing the facts on the ground, literally, by essentially building man-made islands on top of coral reefs, rocks and shoals.” He said: “I believe that China’s actions to enforce its claims within the South China Sea could have far-reaching consequences for our own security and economy, by disrupting the international rules and norms that have supported the global community for decades.”In a March speech, Harris said that “China is creating a great wall of sand” and warned that its “pattern of provocative actions” was “inconsistent with international law”. He said: “It’s no surprise that the scope and pace of building man-made islands raise serious questions about Chinese intentions.”

Harris and other Pentagon officials have said the US should conduct freedom of navigation operations by flying or sailing within the 12-nautical-mile limit that does not apply to Subi Reef, which is not only disputed but was submerged and therefore not territory at all. But they are at odds with the White House, which is said to oppose any such measure now.

“We cannot continue to restrict our navy from operating within 12 nautical miles of China’s reclaimed features,” McCain said. “This sets a dangerous precedent that grants de facto recognition of China’s man-made claims.”

“What does the administration do when Xi Jinping comes to town?” said Green of CSIS. “I think it’s unlikely that the Chinese side will back down and stop construction.”

This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from the Washington Post