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China Lands Test Flight in Disputed Island Chain
Vietnam was quick to protest the flight to new airfield in the South China Sea’s Spratlys
By
TE-PING CHEN
Jan. 2, 2016 11:19 p.m. ET
BEIJING—China said it had landed a test flight on a newly completed airfield in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a sign of its growing military capabilities in the region.
The flight quickly drew a protest from Vietnam, which said China had “seriously violated” its sovereignty.
According to a statement released late Saturday by the Chinese foreign ministry, Beijing has completed construction of an airfield on Fiery Cross Reef, and recently used a civil aircraft to conduct a flight testing whether the facilities were up to civil-aviation standards.
Vietnam said Saturday that it had lodged an official protest with the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi over the action. The Spratly Islands are the subject of overlapping claims by several neighbors, including the Philippines, a U.S. ally.
The test flight came after a visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, which analysts say was partly designed to address the souring relationship between the two countries over territorial disputes.
In the statement posted on the Vietnamese foreign ministry’s website Saturday, ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said China’s action goes against “the common conception of the high-ranking leaders of the two countries, and against an agreement on basic principles for solving maritime issues between Vietnam and China.”
With Beijing’s latest acknowledgment, China has now completed two airfields in the South China Sea, said Andrew Erickson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Apart from the Spratly Islands airfield, Beijing also has an operational airfield on Woody Island, which is located southeast of China’s Hainan Island and is a part of the Paracel island chain, also claimed by Vietnam.
With a length of around three kilometers, the completed airfield is a sign of China’s ability to flex its military power in the region, he said. “While this was a civil test, this airport is clearly very militarily capable, and China could presumably start to use it in some capacity at any time,” said Mr. Erickson.
The U.S., which has expressed concern over freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, late last year flew two B-52 bombers near Chinese-built islands in the Spratlys. The speed of China’s island-building has alarmed observers, who say Beijing could use the new islands to enforce its territorial claims as well as control over one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
U.S. military officials say China could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on such new islands and potentially use them to establish an air defense identification zone.
China says its construction is mainly for civilian purposes.
Competing claimants to the Spratlys, including Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam, also maintain airstrips on the islands. But U.S. officials say the extent of recent Chinese reclamation work and construction in the area of the Spratlys, which China calls the Nansha Islands, has been far more extensive.
For its part, China maintains that such construction is its right. “China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chinying.
—Vu Throng Khanh
Vietnam was quick to protest the flight to new airfield in the South China Sea’s Spratlys
By
TE-PING CHEN
Jan. 2, 2016 11:19 p.m. ET
BEIJING—China said it had landed a test flight on a newly completed airfield in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a sign of its growing military capabilities in the region.
The flight quickly drew a protest from Vietnam, which said China had “seriously violated” its sovereignty.
According to a statement released late Saturday by the Chinese foreign ministry, Beijing has completed construction of an airfield on Fiery Cross Reef, and recently used a civil aircraft to conduct a flight testing whether the facilities were up to civil-aviation standards.
Vietnam said Saturday that it had lodged an official protest with the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi over the action. The Spratly Islands are the subject of overlapping claims by several neighbors, including the Philippines, a U.S. ally.
The test flight came after a visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, which analysts say was partly designed to address the souring relationship between the two countries over territorial disputes.
In the statement posted on the Vietnamese foreign ministry’s website Saturday, ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said China’s action goes against “the common conception of the high-ranking leaders of the two countries, and against an agreement on basic principles for solving maritime issues between Vietnam and China.”
With Beijing’s latest acknowledgment, China has now completed two airfields in the South China Sea, said Andrew Erickson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Apart from the Spratly Islands airfield, Beijing also has an operational airfield on Woody Island, which is located southeast of China’s Hainan Island and is a part of the Paracel island chain, also claimed by Vietnam.
With a length of around three kilometers, the completed airfield is a sign of China’s ability to flex its military power in the region, he said. “While this was a civil test, this airport is clearly very militarily capable, and China could presumably start to use it in some capacity at any time,” said Mr. Erickson.
The U.S., which has expressed concern over freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, late last year flew two B-52 bombers near Chinese-built islands in the Spratlys. The speed of China’s island-building has alarmed observers, who say Beijing could use the new islands to enforce its territorial claims as well as control over one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
U.S. military officials say China could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on such new islands and potentially use them to establish an air defense identification zone.
China says its construction is mainly for civilian purposes.
Competing claimants to the Spratlys, including Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam, also maintain airstrips on the islands. But U.S. officials say the extent of recent Chinese reclamation work and construction in the area of the Spratlys, which China calls the Nansha Islands, has been far more extensive.
For its part, China maintains that such construction is its right. “China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chinying.
—Vu Throng Khanh
