A US admiral said on Sunday that China has fully militarised at least three of the several islands it built in the South China Sea (SCS). These have been equipped with fighter jets, anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems as well as laser and jamming equipment.
Reporting from over the SCS, news agency AFP quoted US Indo-Pacific commander, Admiral John C Aquilino as saying: "I think over the past 20 years we have witnessed the largest military buildup since World War II by the PRC {People's Republic of China}. They have advanced all their capabilities and that buildup of weaponsiation is destabilising the region".
Addressing the AP journalists from a US Navy reconnaissance aircraft, Aquilino said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had assured that they would not transform the artificial islands into military bases in the disputed region.
China is in territorial disputes with almost all its neighbours in the vast Indo-Pacific region. That includes Japan, Taiwan and most of the South-East Asian nations in the Pacific region. It has also laid claims to the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of countries like Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia and asked them to stop exploration and drilling in their own EEZs.
As recently as November 2021, Xi Jinping had assured the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) marking the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China relations that Beijing will not try to dominate or bully them. Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying: "China resolutely opposes hegemonism and power politics, wishes to maintain friendly relations with its neighbours and jointly nurture lasting peace in the region and absolutely will not seek hegemony or even less, bully the small".
However, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte called out Xi at the summit by pointing out Beijing's "abhorrent" behaviour just days earlier after Chinese coast guard ships blocked Filipino boats in the SCS and attacked them with water cannons near the Ayungin Shoal, also called the Second Thomas Shoal which falls within the latter's EEZ.
A week earlier, Aquilino had said that the US will support India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) against China with equipment and other things. He was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on 'Military Posture in the Indo-Pacific Region' where he stressed that the military relations between India and the US are at its highest point.
Responding to Aquilino's comments, Chinese government-sponsored newspaper Global Times said: "Aquilino's focus is on driving a wedge between China and India, underlining the factor of the US in China-India relations". It did not, however, mention the incursion and the encroachment by Chinese forces into Indian held territories.
