Territorial Contests

"The militarization of the situation would make it very clear that the Chinese objective is to impose physical control over some of the most sensitive international waterways in the world."
"It would show China's long-term intention, which is a permanent, physical, military presence in these waterways."
"We are moving to a far more dangerous phase where the Chinese are not merely asserting their claims, but cementing them in military terms."
Jonathan Eyal, head, international security studies, Royal United Services Institute, London

U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters  Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015.

China's claim to ownership of 90 percent of the South China Sea, believed to be a wealth of oil and gas, and its claim to the Spratly Islands overlap with similar claims of its neighbours; Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines Vietnam and Taiwan. Though the archipelago is over 1,2000 kilometres from the Chinese coast some of the world's most important shipping lanes are involved, and China's ambitions are making all concerned extremely alarmed.

Concerned enough to have reached the belief that the recent projects that China has embarked upon, building artificial islands inside the Spratly chain has a military purpose, though the Communist Party has spoken of the projects as being no different than any other country's investment in simple road-building and access to areas hitherto overlooked. It is simply land reclamation, something that many countries involve themselves in.

"The critical question now is what China does next. - Will it continue to build? Will it seek to expel other claimants to these islands -- perhaps putting down runways and aircraft here? Or will it stop"? asks Jonathan Pollock, specialist on U.S.-China relations at the Washington-based Brookings Institute.

All of the above, it seems. U.S. surveillance has detected two large artillery vehicles on one of the artificial islands in the South China Sea. The land reclamation projects appear increasingly to reflect military purposes. While China and the United States through president-to-president consultation on items such as climate change appear to be seeking a spirit of cooperation, the events of land reclamation and military outposts seem to belie normalization.

U.S. defence officials describe the sighted weapons as self-propelled artillery vehicles posing no threat to the United States or any American territories. Though, of course, if they pose a threat to U.S. allies, the United States is obligated to honour its promises to those allies by contesting Chinese claims to territory clearly not its own.

According to Mira Rapp Hooper, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, analysts have identified artillery on at least two of the Chinese land reclamation sites.

In its annual report on China's military power in early May the Pentagon issued warning that five outposts are emerging that could be useful to China for the placement of surveillance systems, harbours, an airfield and logistical support. To keep apprised of the situation, the U.S. has been flying surveillance in the region, leading China to file a formal complaint when a Navy P-8A Poseidon flew over one of the sites.