Chinese Aggressions

CONFIRMING THE CHINESE FLOTILLA NEAR THITU ISLAND
ASIA MARITIME TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE

On August 15, Philippine Congressman Gary Alejano released photographs of Chinese vessels, including fishing, coast guard, and navy ships, that he claimed had been operating within 1 to 3 nautical miles of Philippine-occupied Thitu, or Pag-asa, Island. 

Citing military sources, the congressman said that at least two fishing ships, two Chinese naval vessels, and a China Coast Guard ship were operating around Thitu by August 12, with others, including at least one more navy ship, arriving over the next three days. 

Thitu is the largest of the Philippines’ 10 occupied features in the Spratly Islands and is home to more than 100 Filipino civilians.

Alejano further claimed that the fishing ships included members of China’s maritime militia and that these vessels prevented a ship from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources from approaching the area on August 13. 

Finally, he said that a helicopter dispatched from one of the Chinese naval vessels was seen flying over unoccupied sandbars to the west/northwest of Thitu twice on August 15. 

All of this suggested to Alejano that, “The Chinese have a sinister plan to occupy sandbars just west of Pag-asa that belong to us.”












So far neither Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana nor Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano have confirmed or denied Alejano’s claims. 

AMTI imagery of the area from August 13 can help shine some light on the situation. 

On that day, there were nine Chinese fishing ships and two naval/law enforcement vessels visible near Thitu (locations 1 and 2), with others possibly under cloud cover. 

It is impossible to know if any of those ships might be affiliated with the maritime militia, but at least two appear to be actively fishing (locations 6 and 8), with their nets visibly in the water. 

There also appears to be a Philippine fishing boat docked at the nearest of the unoccupied sandbars (location 12), possibly sent out from Thitu to investigate the Chinese presence.
The fishing vessels (locations 3-11) are all located between 1 and 5 nautical miles from Thitu, while the nearest military/law enforcement ship is about 3.6 nautical miles from the island. 

The ships are between 9 and 14.25 nautical miles from Chinese-occupied Subi Reef to the southwest. It is important to note that ownership of the territorial waters in which these ships are operating is still legally disputed. 

Subi was a low-tide elevation before China built an artificial island on it. 

As such, it does not generate its own territorial sea but could bump out the territorial sea of at least one of the unoccupied sand cays, which is dry at high tide and located less than 12 nautical miles from it. 

So it could be claimed that these ships are all operating within the territorial sea of both Thitu and the sand cay(s) with which Subi is associated.
Setting aside whether Chinese ships legally can fish within 1 nautical mile of Thitu Island, there is no doubt that doing so is highly provocative and runs counter to the narrative of a stable mutually-beneficial new status quo that Beijing has sought to project. 

The fact that law enforcement and naval vessels accompanied the fishermen makes it clear that this was not done without Chinese authorities being aware. 

At best, they permitted their operation. 

At worst, they escorted and guarded them. 

The number and rapid coordination of naval and coast guard ships suggests that this was purposely organized in advance and was not just an ad hoc response by government vessels that happened to be in the area.
One possible explanation for the flotilla’s sudden and provocative appearance is that Beijing wanted to dissuade Manila from planned construction on Thitu. 

The Philippine government has said it plans to spend about $32 million on upgrades including a beaching ramp, desalination facilities, and long-overdue repairs to the islet’s crumbling runway. Those upgrades have been delayed, reportedly due to inclement weather, but Lorenzana has made clear that they remain in the pipeline. 

In light of this week’s events, Manila might feel that those upgrades are even more urgent.

The Chinese thief crying stop thief

By XUAN LOC DOAN 

On Monday and Tuesday, China’s state-run media used very strong language to attack Vietnam, its communist neighbor and a key South China Sea rival. 

This reproach came after the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) endorsed a joint communiqué that indirectly criticized Beijing’s territorial and military expansion in the disputed area.
China, which claims nearly all of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer sea, was believed to have gotten an easy ride from the regional bloc on the maritime disputes at its recent ministerial meetings in Manila.
Yet, reportedly pushed by Vietnam, instead of avoiding tackling their hulking neighbor’s contentious activities, the 10 ASEAN foreign ministers “discussed extensively the matters” and eventually issued the final statement on Sunday night. 

In it, they “took note of the concerns expressed by some ministers on the land reclamations and activities” and “emphasized the importance of non-militarization and self-restraint” in the area.
Arguably upset by the communiqué’s wording and particularly Vietnam’s posture, state-run newspaper China Daily accused Hanoi of hyping up the South China Sea issue and acting as a “thief crying ‘stop thief’” in the hotly contested waters. 

In its view, it is not China but Vietnam that has been working on land reclamation and boosting its military deployment there in recent years.
Xinhua claimed that “Vietnam is the very country [that] has vigorously seized islands, reclaimed lands and pushed for militarization in the South China Sea”.
While it did not cite which figures it referred to, China’s official news agency asserted: “Figures show that since 2007, Vietnam has increased the pace of its large-scale land reclamation … and even built a number of new military facilities in the South China Sea.”
But from observing Beijing’s claims and actions relating to the South China Sea disputes in recent years, many would agree that the contrary is true. 

Indeed, Beijing’s massive land reclamation and militarization in the world’s most disputed waters has been well documented and widely recognized.
For instance, a study by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Australia’s Strategic Forum published last year concluded that China had alarmingly increased its expansionism in the South China Sea since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a US think-tank that monitors developments in maritime-security issues in the region, also found that “since 2013, China has engaged in unprecedented and ecologically devastating dredging and island-building at all seven of the features it occupies in the Spratly Islands”, creating nearly 1,300 hectares of new land.
In contrast, by the AMTI’s estimation, Vietnam has reclaimed about 49 hectares at the reefs and islets it occupies, amounting to less than 4% of the scale of Beijing’s work. 

The methods employed by Hanoi are also far less destructive.
In terms of facility construction and military installation, Vietnam’s work likewise pales in comparison with China’s.
According to the Washington-based group, and as widely reported, several of China’s man-made islands, including its three largest, are now equipped with kilometer-long runways, weapons – including surface-to-air missiles and anti-missile systems – or storage facilities for military equipment.
In contrast, Vietnam has built only one airstrip and some hangars at one of its bases. 

Moreover, as noted by the think-tank, Hanoi’s modest work is a response to its giant neighbor’s construction of military facilities on artificial islands in the region.
It is also worth noting that after years of public denial, an official Chinese magazine has finally not only acknowledged but hailed Xi Jinping’s leading role in “building islands and consolidating the reefs”, praising the fact that his decisions “fundamentally changed the strategic situation of the South China Sea”.
Beijing’s vehement opposition to, and furious anger at, the inclusion of the contentious activities in the area in the drafted or endorsed joint communiqués by ASEAN or other groupings, such as the Group of 7, even though they do not mention China by name, can also speak volumes about its maritime conduct.
If it were a benign and responsible country, which did not engage in any unlawful and aggressive activity in the sea, there would be no need for it to react in such a negative, resentful way. 

Instead, it should wholeheartedly welcome ASEAN’s latest joint communiqué because the agreed statement called for “non-militarization and self-restraint in the conduct of all activities by claimants and all other states” in the area.
Its rejection of the statement, which was adopted by consensus, is mainly because, though China is not directly named, the world – and even perhaps Beijing itself – knows, it is mainly aimed at its contentious behavior in the region.
After all, it is China’s extensive claims, large-scale island-building and huge military buildup – not Vietnam’s behavior – in the region that have raised widespread attention, denunciation and apprehension.
Thus by accusing its smaller neighbor of acting as a “thief crying ‘stop thief’”, it is not Vietnam, but rather China, that behaves hypocritically.
In the same vein, it could be argued, instead of presenting itself as a benign, responsible and peaceful power and calling “for Vietnam to readjust [its] attitude and promote peace” in the South China Sea, China should perhaps reconsider its own behavior.

China Lake: One of China’s Reef Constructions Can Hold 24 Combat Aircraft

China has completed the construction of a variety of military assets in the Vietnamese East Sea, assets that allow it to deploy fighter jets and missile launchers at a moment’s notice and provide it expanded surveillance capabilities.
by FRANCES MARTEL

Fiery Cross Reef, South China Sea
The images show completed “naval, air, radar, and defensive facilities” in the Spratly Island chain, particularly on three reefs China has invested in turning into artificial islands capable of holding combat aircraft and surveillance technology, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The three most developed locations, according to the CSIS report, are Subi, Mischief, and Fiery Cross Reefs in the Spratly Islands. 

“Beijing can now deploy military assets, including combat aircraft and mobile missile launchers, to the Spratly Islands at any time,” the report notes. 

Among the most notable developments since the last such report is the completion of hangar construction on Fiery Cross Reef, which allows China to “accommodate 24 combat aircraft and four larger planes (such as ISR, transport, refueling, or bomber aircraft).”
The CSIS publishes such satellite images and reports periodically. 

In February, it warned that Woody Island, the largest of the Paracel Islands, was home to “an airstrip, hangars, and a deployment of HQ-9 surface-to-air missile batteries,” as well as the beginnings of seven new harbors.
China claims most of the South China Sea in a region within what China calls the “nine-dash line,” a drawing Chinese officials argue proves their ownership of the region. 

Both the Paracel and Spratly Island chains, as well as other notable formations like the Benham Rise and Scarborough Shoal, fall within China’s “nine-dash line” border.
This border violates the territorial integrity of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia. 

Last year, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague ruled that China’s claims were unfounded and it must cease its constructions in the region immediately. 

China responded by calling the ruling a joint U.S.-Japanese conspiracy and refusing to abide by it.

Responding to the CSIS report on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying repeated the false claims to the South China Sea the Hague debunked last year. 

“China has stated many times that the Spratly Islands are its inherent territory,” she said.
A week ago, Li Keqiang insisted that China’s use of the region was not an attempt at colonization. “China’s facilities, Chinese islands and reefs, are primarily for civilian purposes and, even if there is a certain amount of defense equipment or facilities, it is for maintaining the freedom of navigation,” he said, responding to concerns of expansionism.
The Philippines, which arguably has the most territory to lose between the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal, has taken a demure approach to addressing the situation since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016. 

“There’s nothing we can do,” he said. 

“What do you want me to do? Declare war against China?” Duterte asked in frustration this week, responding to critics that he has responded to China’s growing presence in the region too slowly.
Duterte has also chastised the United States for not doing enough to keep China from developing assets in the Philippine territory, contradicting his own demands to see the United States reduce its military presence in the Philippines.
The Philippine Inquirer lamented Duterte’s attitude, calling it “disheartening” and a “puzzling display of defeatism” in an opinion piece this week.
Duterte’s government nonetheless appears to have accepted the delivery of two Japanese surveillance aircraft on Tuesday, meant to patrol the South China Sea. 

According to the Agence-France Presse, the two are part of a five-part package of Beechcraft TC-90 planes, which Japanese officials deemed a responsible move to curbing China’s expansion in the region. 

Duterte has also called for the construction of “structures” in Philippine territory in the South China Sea, though Manila has not clarified what the president meant by this.

China Lake

Aircraft hangars, radar installed on artificial islands

• Hangars can accommodate combat aircraft or surveillance planes
• Militarization will help China establish an Air Defense Zone

By Ben Westcott

Dozens of aircraft hangars and high-end radar capabilities on China's man-made islands in the South China Sea are almost operational, according to new satellite imagery released by a US-based think tank.
The new facilities will further establish China's military dominance over the highly contested region, experts told CNN, and could help China establish a controversial Air Defense Identification Zone in the area.
Images released by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, AMTI, taken in early March, show nearly completed defense infrastructure on three of China's largest artificial islands in the disputed Spratly chain: Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs.
Each of the islands has new aircraft hangers, capable of holding 24 military aircraft, as well as several larger hangars that can hold bombers or surveillance planes.
Though completion of these facilities in early 2017 was expected, the question remains: Where does China go from here?
"I mean, you don't build facilities like that and then not use them," Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Yusof Ishak Institute, told CNN.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said Tuesday she wasn't aware of the report's details but reiterated the Spratly Islands were Chinese territory.
"Whether we decide to deploy or not deploy relevant military equipment, it is within our scope of sovereignty. It's our right to self-defense and self-preservation as recognized by international law," Hua Chunying said.

A satellite photo of China's artificial island on Fiery Cross Reef, taken on March 9, and highlighted by AMTI.

New hangers, radar almost complete
Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs are the largest of seven artificial islands built by China in the Spratlys.
China claims the majority of the South China Sea as its territory, despite overlapping claims by a number of other Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam.



Four bigger hangars have already been completed on Subi Reef, AMTI said, as well as another four on Fiery Cross Reef. 

Hangars to accommodate five larger planes, such as bombers, were in the final stages of construction on Mischief Reef.
"China's three military bases in the Spratlys and another on Woody Island in the Paracels will allow Chinese military aircraft to operate over nearly the entire South China Sea," AMTI said in a statement.
In addition to the hangars, new radar domes are in various stages of construction on each artificial island, about three arrays on each reef. 

Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs now all also have shelters for mobile missiles launchers, according to AMTI.

Subi Reef, taken on March 14, with new Chinese military infrastructure highlighted, courtesy of AMTI.

Air Defense Zone planned
The establishment of an Air Defense Identification Zone, dubbed ADIZ, in the South China Sea has long been considered a possibility by analysts, especially in the wake of July's international court decision against China's maritime claims.
China declared its East China Sea ADIZ in November 2013, antagonizing Japan and the United States, who both said they didn't recognize it.
A similar zone in the South China Sea could rapidly increase tensions in the region, experts said.

New radar arrays and an aircraft hanger freshly completed at China's artificial island on Fiery Cross Reef, according to AMTI

"The worry has to be that if China bases its military aircraft (in the South China Sea), they could fly up and challenge anyone's military aircraft or civilian aircraft if they wanted to," said Carl Thayer, regional security analyst and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales.
China had very rarely enforced its previous ADIZ, and any new zone in the south sea would start out as mostly "symbolic," Storey said.
"And the US will ignore it as it did with the East China Sea ADIZ," he said. 

"The interesting question is really how the Southeast Asian states will respond."

Planes yet to arrive
Though the infrastructure is almost completed, no military aircraft has been deployed to the islands yet, Thayer and Storey said.
China's next step would be to very slowly deploy planes to the artificial islands to gauge the local and US response, Thayer said.
"What China's going to do is habituate," he said. 

"You land one there, and then you fly it out, report it in the state media and see what the reaction is."
"Then you add two or three or four, land one and repair it, see what the response is," he said.
South China Sea tensions generally had waned in the past nine months, since Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte took power and sought a closer relationship with China, Storey said.
If China deploys aircraft, "there will be pro forma protests from certain countries, Vietnam in particular. There will be grumbling from certain ASEAN members," he said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 

"Then, over a period of time, this will become the norm."

Chinese Aggressions

China can deploy warplanes on artificial islands any time: Think tank

Reuters

Missile destroyer Changsha returns to a port in Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province, March 7, 2017, after a high sea drill that passed through the South China Sea.

China appears to have largely completed major construction of military infrastructure on artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea and can now deploy combat planes and other military hardware there at any time, a U.S. think tank said on Monday.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), part of Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the work on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly Islands included naval, air, radar and defensive facilities.
The think tank cited satellite images taken this month, which its director, Greg Poling, said showed new radar antennas on Fiery Cross and Subi.
"So look for deployments in the near future," he said.
China has denied U.S. charges that it is militarizing the South China Sea, although last week Li Keqiang said defense equipment had been placed on islands in the disputed waterway to maintain "freedom of navigation."
AMTI said China's three air bases in the Spratlys and another on Woody Island in the Paracel chain further north would allow its military aircraft to operate over nearly the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route that Beijing claims most of.
Several neighboring states have competing claims in the sea, which is widely seen as a potential regional flashpoint.
The think tank said advanced surveillance and early-warning radar facilities at Fiery Cross, Subi, and Cuarteron Reefs, as well as Woody Island, and smaller facilities elsewhere gave it similar radar coverage.
It said China had installed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles at Woody Island more than a year ago and had deployed anti-ship cruise missiles there on at least one occasion.
It had also constructed hardened shelters with retractable roofs for mobile missile launchers at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief and enough hangars at Fiery Cross for 24 combat aircraft and three larger planes, including bombers.
U.S. officials told Reuters last month that China had finished building almost two dozen structures on Subi, Mischief and Fiery Cross that appeared designed to house long-range surface-to-air missiles.
In his Senate confirmation hearing in January, new U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said China should be denied access to islands it had built up in the South China Sea.
He subsequently softened his language, saying that in the event of an unspecified "contingency," the United States and its allies "must be capable of limiting China's access to and use of" those islands to pose a threat.
In recent years, the United States has conducted a series of what it calls freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, raising tensions with Beijing.

Pinocchio-In-Chief: The United States must judge Xi by his actions rather than his unreliable words

Satellite photos are worth more than a thousand unreliable pledges from Xi Jinping
The Washington Post

A satellite image shows what the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative says appears to bepoint-defense structures for large anti-aircraft guns and close-in weapons systems on an island in the South China Sea. 

IN THE White House Rose Garden on Sept. 25, 2015, Xi Jinping stood with Obama and pledged that “China does not intend to pursue militarization” on outcroppings in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. 

Other top Chinese officials echoed this promise over the past year, even as airstrips were paved and military exercises carried out offshore.
The Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has just published satellite photography showing that China is, contrary to Xi’s pledge, militarizing the Paracel and Spratly islands. 

It has installed point-defense structures for large anti-aircraft guns and close-in weapons systems to defend against cruise missiles. 

The images reveal identical hexagon-shaped structures constructed this year, which could be supplemented at any time by mobile surface-to-air missile systems if, as expected, the islands are turned into operational air bases.
China claims the weapons are defensive; it described the emplacements as a “slingshot” to ward off a “cocky and swaggering” stranger “at the door of your home.” 

The message was clearly aimed at the United States. 

Whether defensive or offensive, the deployments reveal Xi’s public promises to a U.S. president to be worthless — something that is more disturbing and dangerous than the arms themselves.
The weapons are just the latest step in China’s drive to take military command of vital waterways that carry more than half the globe’s merchant fleet tonnage. 

Beijing is thumbing its nose at international law and the rules-based order championed by the United States and its allies. 

An international tribunal ruled in a case brought by the Philippines that there was “no legal basis” for China’s claim to resources falling within a vast area of the sea defined by an arbitrary “nine dash line.” 

But the Xi government rejected the decision, disregarded the pledge made at the White House and has moved resolutely down a path of military escalation.
According to a study from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), China has put installations on four islands in the Paracel group and significant installations on eight islands in the Spratly group. 

As before, China moved incrementally to avoid triggering a major Western reaction. 

The Obama administration has taken a few symbolic steps to defend freedom of navigation in the region, but they have had no evident effect on Chinese behavior. 

On Thursday, China’s navy seized an underwater drone collecting data for a U.S. Navy oceanographic vessel.
China may be taking advantage of the transition to President Donald Trump. 

We don’t yet know Mr. Trump’s plans for what he has said should be a more muscular approach to China across all fronts. 

But a more forceful Western response in the South China Sea is overdue. 

Freedom of navigation and flight exercises could be enlarged. 

A revised, powerful declaratory policy, a new mechanism for cooperation among the allies, and stationing more U.S. forces and equipment around the region, as recommended in the recent CSBA study, are all worth careful consideration. 

The United States and its allies must judge Xi by his actions rather than his unreliable words.

Sina Delenda Est

China Has Placed Weapons on Disputed Spratly Islands in South China Sea
By CHRIS BUCKLEY

BEIJING — China signaled on Thursday that it had installed weapons on disputed South China Sea islands and would use them like a “slingshot” to repel threats, compounding tensions with the incoming Trump administration.
The Chinese message, in a Defense Ministry statement, suggested that China was further watering down a pledge made by Xi Jinping to not militarize the islands.
The comments left little doubt that such installations were part of China’s plan to deepen its territorial claim over the islands, which has raised tensions with its neighbors over their rival claims and with Washington over freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest commercial waterways.
They were also likely to further complicate China’s already testy relations with President Donald J. Trump. 

China’s rapid creation of artificial islands in the South China Sea, expanding former reefs and outcrops into guarded permanent outposts, has already become a major source of tension with Washington.

Repeatedly this year, the Chinese have accused the United States of making “provocative” moves by sending warships near some of these islands, known as the Spratlys.

The Chinese have been creating harbors, runways and reinforced hangars big enough for military aircraft on the islands. 

But new satellite images made public this week appeared to reveal weapons emplacements for the first time.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, which released the images through its Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said they showed “large antiaircraft guns and probable close-in weapons systems,” which can theoretically thwart cruise missile attacks.
The Defense Ministry statement, posted on its website in response to the images, did not specify what kinds of weapons the images showed but said any military hardware on the islands was reasonable. 

It repeated China’s contention that its construction on the islands is mainly for civilian purposes.
“As for necessary military facilities, they are primarily for defense and self-protection, and this is proper and legitimate,” the Defense Ministry said. 

“For instance, if someone was at the door of your home, cocky and swaggering, how could it be that you wouldn’t prepare a slingshot?”

Fiery Cross Reef
Weapons systems are visible on Chinese outposts in the South China Sea.

Satellite images by CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/DigitalGlobe

There was no immediate comment from Mr. Trump or his transition team.
Mr. Trump recently angered Chinese officials by holding a phone conversation with Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, an island that Beijing deems a breakaway province of China. 

It had been nearly four decades since a United States president had such direct contact with a Taiwanese leader.
In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Mr. Trump also criticized China over its trade imbalance with America, its military activities in the South China Sea and its ties to North Korea. 

China was “building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing,” he said in the interview on Fox News.
During his campaign, Mr. Trump dwelled on accusations that China had systematically sapped American industrial might, and he has indicated that trade issues will be a priority in dealings with Beijing. 

But the latest disclosures suggest how seemingly remote islands in the South China Sea could become a source of serious tensions, even military strife.
The Spratlys are the subject of an especially volatile mix of competing claims. 

Parts of the archipelago are also claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan. And the possibility of undersea oil and gas deposits has exacerbated the rivalries.
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has moved in recent months to ease tensions with China, and to distance his country from Washington. 

Even so, the Philippines keeps defense treaties with the United States.
But China, with the world’s second-biggest economy and a swelling military budget, has established an intimidating dominance across much of the South China Sea. 

And the latest satellite images appeared to confirm its deepening military grip on the Spratlys.
The steps “show that Beijing is serious about defense of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea,” the Asia Maritime Defense Initiative said in its report about the images.
“Among other things, they would be the last line of defense against cruise missiles launched by the United States or others” against air bases that may soon go into operation on the islands, it said.
The images showed that the facilities were in place before Mr. Trump’s comments.
The Obama administration sought to play down both the images and the Chinese Defense Ministry’s response. 

“We watch Chinese naval developments very carefully, and we urge all parties in the South China Sea to avoid actions that raise tensions,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
The images elicited a far more contentious response from Republicans, who do not necessarily share Mr. Trump’s views on China trade policy but see Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea as an aggressive challenge to the United States.

Johnson Reef
Weapons systems are visible on Chinese outposts in the South China Sea.

Satellite images by CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/DigitalGlobe
Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the images confirmed “what has long been evident: China is militarizing the South China Sea, its leaders continue to lie about that fact, and Beijing is paying little to no price for its behavior.”
Some American military officials suggested privately that the antiaircraft emplacements were purely defensive in nature, with a limited range, useful only if the outposts were under attack.
Of greater concern, they said, was the possibility that China could one day install more advanced antiaircraft missile systems on the islands, which can fire at targets hundreds of miles away.
Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., head of the United States Pacific Command, said on Wednesday that America would not abandon its military presence across the Asia-Pacific region. 

He indicated that American naval ships would continue passing through the South China Sea to show that the United States “will not allow the shared domains to be closed down unilaterally, no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea.”
The Chinese government has said it respects freedom of civilian passage in the South China Sea but also called American naval “freedom of navigation operations” dangerous meddling. 

The Chinese navy has not tried to block the operations.
The latest images raised new doubts about the intent of comments made by Xi Jinping after he met Obama in the White House in September last year. 

With Obama at his side, Xi told reporters that “China does not intend to pursue militarization” of the islands.
Previous satellite pictures of the islands, released by the Asia Maritime Defense Initiative in August, already indicated that China was building military facilities there. 

Those images appeared to show reinforced aircraft hangars at the Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs, all part of the disputed parts of the archipelago.
A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that his government had been entitled to take such steps and said they did not count as “militarization.”
The spokesman, Geng Shuang, said he could not confirm the precise findings from the latest satellite images but disputed they indicated any change on China’s part.
“If China constructing normal facilities on its own islands and deploying necessary territorial defense facilities counts as ‘militarization,’” he said, “then what about sending fleets through the South China Sea?”

Chinese Aggressions

CHINA’S NEW SPRATLY ISLANDS DEFENSES
Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

China appears to have built significant point-defense capabilities, in the form of large anti-aircraft guns and probable close-in weapons systems (CIWS), at each of its outposts in the Spratly Islands. AMTI began tracking the construction of identical, hexagon-shaped structures at Fiery Cross, Mischief, and Subi Reefs in June and July. 

It now seems that these structures are an evolution of point-defense fortifications already constructed at China’s smaller facilities on Gaven, Hughes, Johnson, and Cuarteron Reefs.

Gaven Reef






Hughes Reef





China has built nearly identical headquarters buildings at each of its four smaller artificial islands. The two smallest of the islets, Hughes and Gaven Reefs, feature four arms built off of these central structures. 

The end of each of these arms sports a hexagonal platform, approximately 30 feet wide. 

The northeastern and southwestern arms host what are most likely anti-aircraft guns (roughly 20 feet long when measured to the tip of the barrel). 

The other two platforms hold smaller (roughly 10-foot-wide) objects without clearly visible barrels. These cannot be definitively identified, but are likely CIWS to protect against cruise missile strikes, according to the Center for Naval Analyses’ Admiral Michael McDevitt (Ret.) and RAND’s Cortez Cooper in a new podcast.

Johnson Reef




China modified this blueprint for its facility on Johnson Reef. 

There the central facility has only two arms, with the southern one sporting the same anti-aircraft gun (which is covered by a tarp in recent imagery but was previously visible) and the northern one an apparent CIWS. 

Another gun and probable CIWS, along with a radar, were constructed on a separate structure, consisting of three hexagonal towers on the eastern side of the artificial island. 

This structure seems to be a less complex precursor to those built more recently at Fiery Cross, Mischief, and Subi Reefs.

Cuarteron Reef



At Cuarteron Reef, the last of the four smaller artificial islands completed, the point-defense systems have been completely separated from the central headquarters building. 

The northeastern and southwestern ends of the islet each host a structure identical to the one built at Johnson, including an anti-aircraft gun, probable CIWS, and radar.
This model has gone through another evolution at China’s much-larger bases on Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief Reefs. 

Each of these sports four structures, consisting of tiered hexagonal towers oriented toward the sea. They are positioned so that any anti-aircraft guns and CIWS installations placed on them would cover all approaches to the base with overlapping fields of fire. 

Earlier AMTI imagery of the construction of these buildings showed that each included six hexagonal structures in a ring around a central tower. 

Since then, three of the outer hexagons have been buried, while the others have been built in a tiered pattern, with those in the front (facing outward), built lower than those behind. 

All of the structures except one at Fiery Cross are also backed by an even taller tower consisting of several terraces. 

These towers likely contain targeting radar and other systems necessary for the operation of advanced point defenses. 

The structure at Fiery Cross lacking this tower is built alongside the base’s runway and may be connected to radar and communications systems at the airport.

Fiery Cross Reef





Construction of all four structures has been completed at Fiery Cross Reef, where covers have been placed over the point defenses installed on the central hexagonal tower and the two in front of it. 

But the size of the platforms (which matches those at the four smaller artificial islands) and covers suggests they boast systems similar to those at Gaven, Hughes, Johnson, and Cuarteron Reefs.

Mischief Reef





At Mischief Reef, two of the four structures have been completed, with covers already placed over the systems installed there. 

Two others are still being finished, with disturbed soil showing where the three buried chambers were placed. 

One of those has covers over the front two platforms, while the other has space for a system that has not been installed yet. 

All three platforms at the fourth structure are empty, but it is clear from the spaces left empty on the platforms that the systems to be installed on the front two will be smaller than the one placed on the central platform. 

This is consistent with the pattern of larger anti-aircraft guns and probable CIWS seen on the smaller islets.

Subi Reef





At Subi Reef, only one of the four structures seems to have its point defenses already installed, while the others sport empty spaces waiting for guns.
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. 

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. 

They would back up the defensive umbrella provided by a future deployment to the Spratlys of mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) platforms, such as the HQ-9 deployed to Woody Island in the Paracel Islands. 

Such a deployment could happen at any time, and Fox News has reported that components for SAM systems have been spotted at the southeastern Chinese port of Jieyang, possibly destined for the South China Sea.