News / China

Defense facilities on disputed island nothing new: China

Thursday, 18 February 2016 5:22 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 18 February 2016 5:21 PM ]

Chinese Foreign Minister spokesman Hong Lei

Beijing has reaffirmed its sovereignty over a disputed island in the South China Sea, saying the deployment of military facilities there is part of the “national defense strategy” and “nothing new.”

“China has been deploying national defense facilities on Xisha Island for decades, it is nothing new,” Chinese Global Times paper quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei as saying on Thursday.

The official also defended the deployment as “legitimate, reasonable and justified.”

He was reacting to claims by the US and Taiwan last week that China had deployed surface-to-air missiles to Yongxing Island, called Woody by Beijing’s rivals.

Taiwan also claims sovereignty, over Yongxing, which lies in the Xisha archipelago, also known as Paracel Islands.

The newspaper further criticized the Western media for hyping up Beijing’s natural defense measures, adding that such a campaign “is a pure repeat of the ‘China threat’ theory.”

The commander of the Philippines military forces, Alexander Lopez, warned of regional consequences after reports of the Chinese deployment. US Secretary of State John Kerry also accused Beijing of increasing its militarization of the region, voicing serious concern.

However, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday lashed out at the reports as a Western media invention, saying the deployment of “limited and necessary national defense facilities on China’s own territory” does not mean the militarization of the disputed waters.

Countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei, all have overlapping claims with China over disputed territories in the South China Sea, including the Paracels, Spratly Islands, Pratas Islands and Scarborough Shoal.

The US, which usually sides with Beijing’s rivals in the territorial dispute, has long accused Beijing of attempting to take advantage of the situation and gradually assert control in the South China Sea.

Beijing, however, rejects the allegations and accuses Washington of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.

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