Lawmakers seek $7.5 billion to counter China’s expansionism

By Joe Gould

Chinese troops march during a Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad on March 23, 2017. The U.S. Congress wants to increase funding to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. should forge stronger military ties with Taiwan and add $7.5 billion in national defense spending in the Pacific region in order to counter Chinese influence in the region, according to a legislative proposal from four U.S. senators.
The bipartisan Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, or ARIA, would authorize $1.5 billion annually for five years to deter and defend against China. 

A mix of State Department and Defense Department funds would bolster the U.S. military presence and readiness in the region, improving defense infrastructure and critical munitions stockpiles.
The bill would also support regular arms sales to Taiwan, and fund the enforcement of freedom-of-navigation and overflight rights — moves to defy Beijing’s calls to keep out of the contested South China Sea.
CNBC reported this month that China had installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three of its outposts in the South China Sea.

China’s deployment of long-range missiles to its artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea could further consolidate and enhance the country’s physical control over the region.

The bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Cory Gardner, chairs the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity. he said the idea had originally come from Senate Armed Services Committee Chair John McCain, R-Ariz., and that he would work with appropriators to see it funded.
“This is not a new concept, and this is as close as we’ve come to an Asia-Pacific security initiative,” Gardner told reporters Tuesday.
The other sponsors are the subpanel’s ranking member, Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Todd Young, R-Ind. 

The name of the bill recalls the European Reassurance Initiative, a pot of money to bolster European capabilities against Russia—since renamed the European Deterrence Initiative.
On Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver and Deputy East Asian and Pacific Affairs Alex Wong, appeared before Gardner’s subpanel, where they endorsed the legislation’s goals.
“With the help of Congress and the funding provided, we’re trying to build a force that’s appropriate to the longer-term challenges with China’s military modernization program, and trying to work with allies and partners to make sure they are adequately equipped and prepared for those long-term challenges,” Schriver said.
The U.S. is already boosting allies’ maritime domain awareness and maritime capabilities. 

The bill would augment foreign military financing and international military education and training programs, both with the idea to help partners “to resist coercion and to deter and defend against security threats.”
The bill explicitly excludes Myanmar, whose military has been accused of human rights violations, and Philippine counternarcotics activities, which have been linked to extrajudicial killings

War with China and war with Russia would have some overlapping qualities, but the Pentagon needs to figure out how and where to invest to deal with both.

In written testimony, Schriver emphasized the fiscal 2019 budget proposal’s investment in joint, integrated fires to “reach inside an adversary’s anti-access and area-denial envelope with advanced, long-range munitions.”
The Pentagon’s implementation of the National Defense Strategy calls for dispersal equipment and “survivable, sustainable logistics” to help in a potential conflict with China.
Schriver said the competition with China was not only a military rivalry with the U.S. 

The U.S. is seeking to partner with all nations that respect national sovereignty, fair and reciprocal trade and the rule of law.
“It’s a competition of ideas and values and interests. I think many more countries, including the most significant and influential counties in Asia outside of China support these concepts,” Schriver said.

World's Stupidest President

Trump’s praise for China’s leader was ‘shameful’ coming after the death of the Nobel-winning political prisoner
By Tom Phillips in Beijing

Human rights activists have poured scorn on Donald Trump for showering China’s “terrific” president Xi Jinping with praise just hours after one of the world’s most famous political prisoners died in the custody of Chinese security services.
Speaking in Paris shortly after it was announced that the democracy champion and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo had died, the US president said nothing of the activist’s plight.

Instead, when asked for his personal thoughts on Xi by a Chinese television journalist, Trump replied: “He’s a friend of mine. I have great respect for him … a great leader.
“He’s a very talented man. I think he’s a very good man,” Trump continued at a joint press conference with French president, Emmanuel Macron. 

“He loves China, I can tell you ... He wants to do what’s right for China.”
“President Xi is a terrific guy. I like being with him a lot, and he’s a very special person,” added the US president, who has been trying to forge a partnership with China to tackle North Korea.
Friends of Liu Xiaobo and campaigners slammed the timing and nature of Trump’s comments about Xi, who observers say has overseen the most dramatic crackdown on civil society in decades in a bid to shore up the Communist party’s monopoly on power.
Hu Jia, a veteran activist, said: “I feel so disappointed. Trump has shown so little interest in human rights since he came to power, and sometimes he even shows contempt for human rights issues.”
“Trump did nothing during the G20 summit and now makes these comments in Paris. Is he trying to encourage the dictator? Is his message: ‘What you’ve done can be ignored?’”
“The remarks I’ve heard from Trump leave me feeling cold, even in such a hot, damp summer,” Hu added.
Teng Biao, a human rights lawyer who was forced into exile in the US by Xi’s crackdown, said the west as a whole had failed to stand up to Beijing over Liu Xiaobo’s case and the wider human rights crisis.
“And it is especially shameful that Donald Trump praised Xi Jinping at the moment when Liu Xiaobo was dying,” Teng added. 

“Xi Jinping is so brutal … Xi Jinping is not a respectable leader. He is a brutal dictator.”
Rose Tang, another exiled human rights activist, said Trump’s comments were “incredibly horrific and infuriating”.
“He has no human decency … let alone the tiniest bit of courage to stand up to China, a dictatorship that’s been growing stronger by the day because of appeasement from the west.”
The White House later issued a brief statement which said Trump had been “deeply saddened” by the death of the “courageous advocate” Liu Xiaobo.
However, that statement contained no criticism of the role China’s leaders played in Liu Xiaobo’s ordeal and was far shorter and more restrained than those of other prominent Republicans, including former president George W Bush.
In a statement, Bush said Liu Xiaobo had “dared to dream of a China that respected human rights”. 

“For that he spent much of his life as a political prisoner of conscience. But he never wavered in his quest to advance freedom and democracy.”
Senator John McCain said Liu’s treatment represented “an egregious violation of the fundamental human rights” for which he had battled. 

“Unfortunately ... this is only the latest example of Communist China’s assault on human rights, democracy and freedom,” McCain added.
Senator Marco Rubio also slammed China’s “shameful treatment of this peaceful hero, who championed the very ideals that are at the foundation of America’s own experiment in self-government”.
Terry Branstad, the new US ambassador to Beijing, also went beyond Trump’s comments, calling on China “to release all prisoners of conscience and to respect the fundamental freedoms of all”.
Teng, the exiled lawyer, said Trump’s fawning over Xi underlined how the world was turning its back on Chinese human rights defenders as they put their country’s economies ahead of their values.
“Western governments feel that for them it is more important to talk [with China] about North Korea or counter-terrorism, or climate change or international business, than human rights,” he said.

The bully of Asia

US senator urges Australia to join freedom of navigation operations in South China Sea
By Jamie Smyth in Sydney

US Senator John McCain speaking in Sydney on Tuesday.

Senator John McCain has accused China of acting like “bully” in the Asia-Pacific region by using its economic strength to coerce neighbours and making territorial claims in the South China Sea that are not backed up by international law. 
In a speech during a visit to Australia on Tuesday, the US senator suggested Canberra should join the US in taking part in freedom of navigation operations in the disputed South China Sea.
He also acknowledged US partners around the world had concerns about the administration of Donald Trump but called on them to have patience and stick with America in the face of a resurgent China and Russia. 
“The challenge is that as China has grown wealthier and stronger, it is acting more and more like a bully. It is refusing to open more of its economy so that foreign businesses can compete fairly.”
“It is stealing other peoples’ intellectual property. It is asserting vast territorial claims that have no basis in international law. And it is using its trade and investment as tools to coerce its neighbours.” 
Mr McCain, who is chairman of the US Senate’s armed services committee, said he did not envisage conflict with Beijing but said it was better if Australia and the US dealt with the strategic challenges posed by China together with other partners in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr McCain is due to attend a major defence summit in Singapore this week where he is expected to reach out to allies in the Asia Pacific region which are nervous about US policy. 
“I realise some of Trump’s actions and statements have unsettled America’s friends. They have unsettled many Americans,” he said.
“[But] I believe that Australia, and our other allies and partners can still count on America.” 
Mr McCain acknowledged the US was going through a “rough patch” and there was a real debate under way in the US about what kind of role America should play in the world. 
“Frankly, I don’t know how this debate will play out. But I do believe — and I don’t think I’m exaggerating here — that the future of the world will turn to a large extent on how this debate in America is resolved.” 
During his trip to Australia Mr McCain said he believed Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, was a bigger threat than Isis following the country’s attempt to interfere with the US election. 
Mr McCain’s visit to Australia comes at a sensitive time for Australia’s 65-year-old military alliance with the US.
Trump’s election victory and a difficult first phone call with Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, which the US president described as his “worst call by far”, has caused some politicians to call for a recalibration of the relationship.
Public support for the alliance is at a near-decade low. 
There is concern in Canberra that it could become caught in the middle of a tug of war between the Trump administration and China, Australia’s largest trading partner.
So far the government of Mr Turnbull has not performed a freedom of navigation operation within one of the 12-nautical mile boundaries set by China by means of its territorial claims to disputed islets in the South China Sea. 
Mr McCain said it would be unfair to ask Australia to choose the US at the expense of China. 
“That is a false choice. The real choice, the real question, is whether Australia and America are better off dealing with China’s strategic and economic challenges together, or by ourselves.”

Sina Delenda Est

China’s smear campaign against a U.S. admiral backfires
By Josh Rogin 

The commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, testifies before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 26. 

The Chinese government is denying reports that its ambassador to Washington asked the Trump administration to fire Adm. Harry Harris, the head of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and a strong voice inside the U.S. government calling for a tough China policy. 

This may mark the end of Beijing’s not-so-subtle campaign against Harris, which has been going on for years.
During the presidential transition, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner established a secret channel for communication with the help of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. 

On May 6, the Japanese newswire Kyodo News’s Beijing bureau reported that Cui requested Trump get rid of Harris, before last month’s summit between Trump and Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago, offering unspecified help to solve the North Korean crisis. 

“A source close to U.S.-China ties” told Kyodo that the Trump administration likely rejected the request.

One White House official told me today that Cui never requested to Kushner that the Trump administration fire Harris. 

But a Trump transition official who was briefed on the Cui-Kushner meetings told me that Cui did raise the issue during the transition, but no promises were made.
Regardless, Harris’s allies in Congress are ready to take up his cause if the Chinese effort against Harris continues or if the Trump administration tries to throw the admiral overboard. 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the Kyodo report was “outrageous” if true.
“I hope the Trump administration will reject such an inappropriate and presumptuous demand with the ridicule it deserves,” he said. 

“The fact that the Chinese government would make such a request only confirms that Admiral Harris is the right leader for Pacific Command.”
Pacific Command’s chief spokesman Capt. Darryn James told me that the story could be just another attempt by the Chinese government to smear Harris, as it has been doing for a long time.
“I don’t know anything about alleged conversations, but for years there’s been a lot of Chinese propaganda directed at Admiral Harris that we don’t pay much attention to,” said James. 

“Admiral Harris’s focus remains on protecting America’s interests in his area of responsibility.”
China’s Global Times, which often writes in support of the Chinese government, blamed the story on the Japanese media in a May 7 op-ed, accusing Japan of making up stories to thwart the warming of U.S.-China relations. 

The op-ed also claimed that China was fine with Harris being PACOM commander.
“Beijing has become more and more confident about developing ties with a Trump-led US,” it said. “China is able to keep normal interaction with the US Asia-Pacific command led by Harris. We do not count on any senior US official to take a pro-China position and we can cope with any who take a hard stance toward China.”
That’s a big shift from what the Chinese media has been saying about Harris since he became PACOM commander in 2015. 

Harris has been a strong voice inside the U.S. government for tougher measures to confront all manners of Chinese aggression, including its militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea. 

It was Harris who famously coined the term “Great Wall of Sand” to describe Beijing’s effort to expand its control in the Western Pacific.
The Chinese government singled out Harris for attacks early on because it recognized his influence, said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“They realized he was going to be an effective commander who was going to be able to marshal support for a tougher stance vis-a-vis China,” she said. 

“Harris has been willing to speak truth to power.”
China’s official and unofficial news agencies have been attacking Harris for years, often accusing him of being Japanese, in order to question his motivations. 

In fact, Harris’s mother was Japanese and his father was a U.S. Navy chief petty officer stationed in Yokosuka, Japan.“Some may say an overemphasis on the Japanese background about an American general is a bit unkind,” China’s official state media outlet Xinhua wrote last year.
“But to understand the American’s sudden upgraded offensive in the South China Sea, it is simply impossible to ignore Admiral Harris’s blood, background, political inclination and values.”

Beijing’s long campaign against Harris seems to have backfired. 

The shift in China’s tone suggests a realization that the more Harris is attacked by Beijing, the safer he may be in his job.
If Trump dumps Harris now, it will look like yet another concession to China that undermines U.S. and regional security in exchange for promises of future help on North Korea that may never come.

THAAD Deployment In South Korea

Seoul Will Respond If Beijing Takes Retaliatory Measures, South Korea Says
By Vishakha Sonawane

South Korean Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said Thursday that China has not taken any direct retaliatory measures against Seoul’s plans to deploy a U.S. anti-ballistic missile system in the Korean Peninsula to deter North Korea. 

The South Korean media had earlier reported that Beijing unofficially imposed several economic measures on Seoul to assert further pressure against the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system deployment.
"If China officially takes unfair action against South Korea we would openly move against it, but as long as China says its moves are not related to THAAD and rather, local measures at home, the South Korean government cannot accuse China of retaliating," Yoo said.
The minister’s comments came after South Korea's Lotte Group said Wednesday that Chinese officials stopped construction at a multibillion-dollar real estate project in the country’s northeastern Shenyang city following a fire inspection.
According to Yoo, Lotte executives told the South Korean government that the Chinese decisions were not directly related to THAAD.
Beijing has reacted strongly over Washington and Seoul’s plan to deploy the missile system, citing security concerns. 

Last month, China and Russia — the latter has also opposed the THAAD deployment — agreed to take countermeasures over the installation in a bid to safeguard interests of both the nations and to maintain strategic balance in the Korean Peninsula.
On Jan. 19, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) accused China of “bullying” South Korea over THAAD.
“China has cut off charter flights from South Korea, banned imports of South Korean cosmetics and other products, outlawed South Korean music, and threatened South Korean companies. China has done all of this to stop the deployment of a missile defense system, which is only necessary because China has aided and abetted North Korea for decades,” McCain said at the time.

China Threat

THAAD Deployment Should Not Be Postponed Despite Chinese Objections, South Korean Acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn Says
By Vishakha Sonawane

North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are “clear existential threats” and deployment of a U.S. anti-ballistic missile is “a self-defensive measure” to counter that danger, South Korea’s Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn said Monday. 

He also said that the instalment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system should not be delayed despite China’s opposition.
Washington and Seoul are planning to install the THAAD system in South Korea by the end of this year.
"[North Korea] has been expanding its nuclear capabilities and developing the technology to create nuclear weapons. They are also miniaturizing nuclear weapons," Hwang said. 

"Right now is not the time to talk to try to resolve North Korea's nuclear issues."
Hwang also said that the THAAD deployment is necessary to “protect national security.”
"The deployment of the THAAD is a self-defensive measure that is absolutely needed to protect national security and the people's lives," Hwang said.
Last July, South Korea and the U.S. agreed to deploy THAAD in the Korean Peninsula. 

However, the move elicited strong criticism from China, which has cited security reasons as causes for its concern. 

According to China, the THAAD system could be used to supervise its missile launches as far inland as Xi'an in the northwest. 

Beijing has reportedly imposed several economic measures to put further pressure on Seoul to stop the instalment.
On Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) said that China is “bullying” South Korea over decision to deploy THAAD.
“Meanwhile, China is escalating its campaign of economic retaliation against South Korea for the joint alliance decision to deploy the THAAD missile defense system … Actions speak louder than words. If China believes in free trade and has genuine concerns about the deployment of THAAD in South Korea, it should cease its attempts to undermine South Korea’s sovereign ability to defend itself and use its considerable influence to pressure North Korea to stop its destabilizing behavior,” the senator said.

GOP senators call for 'firm response' to Chinese seizure of Navy drone

BY KRISTINA WONG

Republican senators are calling for a "firm response" to China's seizure of a Navy drone, including recalling the U.S. ambassador to China until the drone is returned.
"This brazenly hostile act is outrageous and must be met with a firm response. The U.S. Navy was operating in international waters conducting a standard exercise, and China should return the underwater vehicle immediately,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.).
Gardner is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, "The United States must not stand for such outrageous conduct.
“The Chinese Navy’s seizure of a U.S. unmanned oceanographic vessel in international waters is a flagrant violation of the freedom of the seas. China had no right to seize this vehicle," he added.
The incident occurred Thursday around noon local time in international waters off the coast of the Philippines, according to a defense official.
The USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was preparing to retrieve its unmanned drone out of the water as part of its typical mission to collect data on the ocean and weather patterns, the official said. 

The drone had surfaced and sent out a signal as to its location per normal operations.
A Chinese ship that had been shadowing the Bowditch then dropped its own small boat in the water and swooped in to grab the drone, the official said.
The Bowditch crew called over radio to the Chinese ship to ask for the equipment back. 

The Chinese crew confirmed receipt of the message, but began sailing away, leaving with the drone.
Around noon local time on Friday, the U.S. State Department filed an official demarche with China. The official said the matter is now in the State Department's hands.
Gardner urged the Obama administration to recall the U.S. ambassador to China until the drone is returned and a formal apology is issued.
"The United States must send a message to China, unilaterally and through the United Nations, that if its hostile behavior in the South China Sea continues, there will be repercussions," he said.
McCain added: "We are not witnessing a China committed to a ‘peaceful rise.’ Instead, we are confronting an assertive China that has demonstrated its willingness to use intimidation and coercion to disrupt the rules-based order that has been the foundation of security and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region for seven decades.
"As I have said repeatedly, we must adapt U.S. policy and strategy to reflect this reality and ensure we have the necessary military forces, capabilities, and posture in the region to deter, and if necessary, defeat aggression.”

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?”