A satellite image from March 17 shows work on an emerging artificial island at Mischief Reef in the South China Sea. Credit Center for Strategic and International Studies, via Digital Globe
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Thursday defended China’s island-building work in contested waters in the South China Sea, saying the infrastructure the nation was constructing around reefs, rocks and shoals was within China’s sovereign rights and would help ships in the event of typhoons.
The spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said at a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing that the construction work was being used for maritime purposes and not aimed at making claims at the expense of other nations. China says large sections of the South China Sea are its territory, including the waters containing the Spratly and Paracel Islands, despite competing claims from Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and other nations.
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and adjacent waters,” Ms. Hua said, using the Chinese name for the Spratly Islands.
Ms. Hua said on Thursday that China was building “civil functioning facilities such as typhoon shelters, navigation aids, search-and-rescue centers, marine meteorological forecasting stations, fishing services and civil administration offices.” She said the projects would “provide necessary services to China and its neighboring countries, as well as international vessels sailing in the South China Sea.”
“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.
She added that the islands would also be used for China’s military defense but did not give details.
Ms. Hua’s comments were consistent with previous official statements by China in defense of its island-building projects, which emerged in the last year as another source of tension in the region. The area is believed to be rich in oil and gas and, perhaps more important, vital to regional shipping and maritime navigation.
In early 2014, countries in Southeast Asia began raising alarms publicly about China’s construction work in the Spratly archipelago. The Philippines filed protests to China against projects at two reefs, and the Philippine president said in June that he was alarmed by the movements of ships that could be engaged in island-building at two other sites. In May, the United States defense secretary at the time, Chuck Hagel, scolded China for its activities at multiple sites in the South China Sea while at a security conference in Singapore.
Ms. Hua made her statements after news organizations reported on photographs released by a research group based in Washington that showed ambitious construction projects around the contested Mischief Reef.
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