Why did China fly 'combat patrols' over the Spratly Islands?
In the wake of an international court's ruling rejecting China's claims to disputed territory in the South China Sea, China said the combat exercises were an effort to protect its 'maritime interests.'
In the wake of an international court's ruling rejecting China's claims to disputed territory in the South China Sea, China said the combat exercises were an effort to protect its 'maritime interests.'
China鈥檚 air force has sent bombers and fighter jets on 鈥渃ombat patrols鈥� near the islands at the center of a long-running territorial dispute in the South China Sea, a senior colonel said, according to the Xinhua news agency.
鈥淭he Air Force is organizing normalized South China Sea combat patrols, practicing tactics ... increasing response capabilities to all kinds of security threats and safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime interests,鈥� Senior Col. Shen Jinke of the People鈥檚 Liberation Army Air Force told Xinhua, Reuters reports.
The exercises, which are focusing on the airspace around the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, come as tensions have increased in the wake of a recent international court ruling in The Hague that rejected China鈥檚 claims to a broad swath of territory in the South China Sea.
Further north, another confrontation is brewing. On Saturday,聽Japan officially protested after six Chinese coast guard vessels (at least three were armed with gun batteries, Japan said) approached disputed East聽China聽Sea islands along with a fleet of hundreds of Chinese fishing boats.
Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it filed the protest after the Japanese coast guard spotted the vessels Saturday along with a fleet of 230 Chinese fishing boats swarming around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands.聽China聽also claims the islands, which it calls the Diaoyu, the Associated Press reports.
Asked about Japan's statement,聽China's聽Foreign Ministry reiterated its position that the islands are "China's聽inherent territory" and that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over them and their adjacent waters.
China, which lays historical claim to the 鈥渘ine-dash line,鈥澛� encompassing as much as 90 percent of the sea, refused to recognize the court鈥檚 ruling last month. The dispute is complex, involving conflicting claims from the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
Some observers told the 海角大神 Science Monitor last month that China would particularly watch the responses of the US and the Philippines, which brought the court ruling in part because of a dispute over Scarborough Shoal, a reef 140 miles from the Philippine coast.聽
Last week, China鈥檚 Defense Ministry announced that it would begin holding joint military exercises with Russia in September, in an action that appeared to be particularly aimed at the US, which has argued China should respect the court鈥檚 ruling.
Russia has supported China鈥檚 territorial claims in the South China Sea and its rejection of the court ruling, pointing to what it calls the US鈥� 鈥渕eddling鈥� in the region, the Monitor reported.
In what鈥檚 increasingly become a tit for tat conflict, both China and the US have said they are not directly trying to provoke aggression.聽 Last week, Yang Yujun, a spokesman for the China Defense Ministry said the land and sea exercises will be 鈥渞outine鈥� and will not 鈥渢arget any third party.鈥�
In January, a US naval ship conducted a patrol around the disputed Triton Island,聽 as part of a strategy designed to decrease tensions, the Monitor reported.
鈥淭he U.S. government takes no position on the territorial disputes in the Spratly Islands, but does take a strong position on what kinds of claims are made to the waters surrounding those features,鈥� an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted.
This week, according to Xinhua, China鈥檚 air force sent several H-6 bombers and Su-30 fighter jets to the airspace over the disputed islands, Reuters reports. The patrols also include surveillance and refueling aircraft, but it鈥檚 not clear when exactly they occurred.
Many of China鈥檚 claims center on the building it has done on top of reefs and rocky outcroppings that it argues give it international rights to further develop around the waters surrounding these 鈥渋slands,鈥� the Monitor reported.
With Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte indicating that he would be open to negotiations with China, it鈥檚 also possible that a round of peaceful negotiations, rather than further escalation of the conflict, could eventually occur, though when that might happen is unclear, some analysts told the Monitor.
鈥淭he initial one or two weeks are going to be very interesting, with people probably prone to over-analyzing the situation,鈥� Taylor Fravel, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Monitor after the court鈥檚 ruling last month. 鈥淏ut it is not preordained that escalation will happen; it鈥檚 not in the Chinese or US interest.鈥�