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Taiwan president sets off for disputed Taiping island in South China Sea
Taiwan president visits disputed Taiping island in South China Sea
(about 9 hours later)
Taiwan’s outgoing president defied key ally the US to set out on Thursday to visit an island in the disputed South China Sea.
The president of Taiwan ignored US criticism and flew to a disputed island in the South China Sea to reaffirm his country’s sovereignty, saying the trip was aimed at promoting peace.
Accompanied by about 30 staff members, Ma Ying-jeou left the capital Taipei early aboard an air force C-130 cargo plane bound for Taiping Island, also known as Itu Aba.
Ma Ying-jeou’s one-day visit to Itu Aba on Thursday came amid growing international concern over rising tensions in the South China Sea, especially in the wake of Beijing’s rapid creation of seven man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago.
Taiping lies in the Spratly archipelago, an area where Taiwan shares overlapping claims with China, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The city state of Brunei also claims a part of the South China Sea.
Washington, Taiwan’s biggest ally, called Ma’s trip “extremely unhelpful”, adding it would not do anything to resolve territorial disputes.
Related: How China's artificial islands led to tension in the South China Sea
Related: How China's artificial islands led to tension in the South China Sea
There was no immediate response from Beijing, but the Philippines expressed its concern over the trip. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said in Manila: “We remind all parties concerned of our shared responsibility to refrain from actions that can increase tension in the South China Sea.”
But Ma, who steps down in May, said he had told the United States about his trip a few days beforehand.
Coming near the end of his eight years in office, Ma’s visit aims to emphasise Taiwan’s sovereignty claim over the South China Sea.
“The US and we (Taiwan), when it comes to the big direction for the South China Sea, are the same,” Ma told reporters. “We all hope for peace, hope there is no conflict or war.”
Hemmed in diplomatically by China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, Ma’s government also wishes to be seen as a legitimate actor in the struggle for influence in the area, where tensions have been sharpened by China’s increasingly robust assertions of ownership.
Beijing on Wednesday reiterated that China and Taiwan had a common duty to protect Chinese sovereignty in the South China Sea. Beijing deems Taiwan a wayward province to be taken by force if necessary.
Ma, who has been criticized at home as weak on foreign policy, must step down in May due to term limits and analysts said he considered the island visit a capstone to his time in office. President-elect Tsai Ing-wen declined an invitation to go on the trip.
Taiwan has just finished a $100m (£70m) port upgrade and built a new lighthouse on Itu Aba, known as Taiping in Taiwan. The island, which lies in the Spratlys, also has an airstrip, a hospital and fresh water.
“President Ma ... views advancing [Taiwan’s] maritime interests as part of his legacy,” said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. “His visit to Taiping will further incite nationalistic fervour in the claimant countries and increase tensions.”
Related: China will take ‘all necessary’ measures in future US sail-bys in South China Sea
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday the US was disappointed by Ma’s trip, saying it could exacerbate tensions.
Both China and Taiwan claim most of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also have competing claims.
During a visit to Beijing on Wednesday, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, encouraged all parties in the South China Sea to clarify their territorial claims, exercise restraint and engage in negotiations on the basis of international law.
Vietnam’s top official in Taiwan said Hanoi “resolutely opposed” Ma’s visit. The Philippine foreign ministry said all parties had a shared responsibility to refrain from actions that could increase tensions.
“I stressed the importance of finding common ground among the claimants and avoiding the destabilising cycle of mistrust or escalation,” Kerry said following a meeting with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi.
Ma said the visit was now or never. “This was the time to go,” he said. “If I didn’t go now, it would have been too late.”
The US takes no position on who owns the islands, but says developments in the South China Sea are a matter of national security. The sea is home to key shipping lanes as well as important fisheries and a possible wealth of oil and natural gas reserves.
Given the tensions over the South China Sea, few senior political officials from any of the claimants have visited the contested region in recent years.
Tensions have been especially high since Beijing transformed seven disputed reefs into islands. The US says the new islands don’t enjoy the status of sovereign territory and sent a guided-missile destroyer close to one of them, called Subi reef, in October in a challenge to Beijing’s territorial claims, sparking warnings from China.
Ma’s visit follows elections won by the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive party (DPP), which declined a request by Ma to send a representative along. The DPP said Taiwan had a responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the area.
Taiping is the largest naturally occurring island in the area, but has recently been eclipsed in size by man-made islands created by China from reefs and shoals. China has built housing, ports, airstrips and other infrastructure on the newly created islands, drawing accusations from the US and others that it is exacerbating tensions in the strategically vital region.
The claims of both China and Taiwan are based on maps from the late 1940s belonging to the Nationalists, when they ruled all of China. The party fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Taiwan stations about 200 coast guard personnel, scientists and medical workers on Taiping. It occupies a number of other islets in the South China Sea, including the Pratas island group to the north.
China has appeared unfazed by Taiwan’s upgrading work on Itu Aba. Military strategists say that is because Itu Aba could fall into Chinese hands should it ever take over Taiwan.
The 46-hectare (114-acre) island supports around 180 people, about 150 of them coastguard personnel.