China 'deployed artillery vehicles on disputed isles'

SINGAPORE — The United States has spotted a pair of mobile artillery vehicles on an artificial island that China is building in the South China Sea, a resource-rich stretch of ocean crossed by vital shipping lanes, American officials said.

China’s construction programme on previously uninhabited atolls and reefs in the Spratly Islands has already raised alarm and drawn protests from other countries in the region, whose claims to parts of the South China Sea overlap China’s.

Defence Secretary Ashton Carter called this week for China to halt the construction, saying that international law did not recognise Chinese claims of sovereignty over the new territories and that American warships and military aircraft would continue to operate in the area.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said no outside actors had the right to dictate to China in an area it claims as its sovereign territory and accused the US of “provocations and instigations” that threaten stability.

The artillery was spotted by satellites and surveillance aircraft about a month ago, and the two vehicles have since been either hidden or removed, according to an American official who spoke about intelligence matters on the condition of anonymity. The official added that even if the weapons remain on the island, they pose no threat to American naval forces or aircraft in the region, though the guns could reach some nearby islands claimed by other countries.

With Mr Carter in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-profile annual Asian security meeting that Chinese officials are also attending, American officials were reluctant to publicly discuss the intelligence they had collected about the artillery.

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticised China’s deployment of artillery on the island as “a disturbing development and escalatory development”.

“Their actions are in violation of international law, and their actions are going to be condemned by everyone in the world,” said Mr McCain.

“We are not going to have a conflict with China,” he said, “but we can take certain measures which will be a disincentive to China to continue these kinds of activities.”

There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials about the weapons.

A top Chinese military official, Adm Sun Jianguo, is scheduled to speak at the conference in Singapore about Chinese military policies. Admiral Sun, the deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, which includes the navy, will lead the strongest delegation of military officials that China has yet sent to the annual forum.

China released a military strategy document earlier this week that, for the first time, called for its navy to project force beyond its coastal waters into the open oceans. Western officials said because of its timing, the document seemed intended as a challenge to other participants in the conference.

The heightened tensions between the US and China over the South China Sea were on display last week when the United States sent a surveillance plane close to Fiery Cross Reef, which China has built into an island with a runway that military aircraft can use. The Chinese told the American plane to leave the area, according to a CNN television crew that was aboard the flight at the Pentagon’s invitation.

China has said that it was building the artificial islands in the sea largely for civilian purposes, but it has not denied that it also envisions a military role for them.

In April, Ms Hua told reporters that the islands would be used to aid the country’s defence, though she did not provide details.

“Such constructions are within China’s sovereignty and are fair, reasonable, lawful and do not affect nor target any country, and are beyond reproach,” she said.

The US disagrees, and American officials have stressed in recent days that the American-dominated security order in the region should be respected because it has brought calm and prosperity.

The implication is that China is threatening to upend that system, but the American officials have hesitated to say so directly, preferring to talk in generalities about all countries needing to find diplomatic solutions to their disputes in the South China Sea. THE NEW YORK TIMES