Expert doubts Beijing to demilitarize S. China Sea

From the Daily Tribune (Mar 4): Expert doubts Beijing to demilitarize S. China Sea

While Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. emerged strong with his remark that China should demilitarize in the disputed South China Sea, a senior official of a Washington-based think tank group said it’s likely impossible for Beijing to dismantle its installed weapon systems in the area.

At a press conference on Thursday’s closing reception of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) international conference “US-Asean Relations: Charting the next 40 Years,” CSIS Southeast Asia program senior adviser Ernest Bower said “China is not going to walk that back just because they are asked to do it by a group of Asean foreign ministers.”

“It’s great if they would (dismantle their weapons systems) but that’s not going to happen,” he noted.

Yasay earlier had said some foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) had expressed “grave concerns” over China’s militarization in the region.

When asked by if there’s a possibility for them to appeal China’s demilitarization and further dismantling of weapons installed in the area, Yasay answered “yes.”

Bower said Yasay’s response was correct, but it does not follow that China would readily comply

“I think it’s the right answer but I don’t know, it doesn’t seem very likely,” he noted.

Zhu Feng, executive director to China Center for Collaborative Studies of theSouth China Sea, for his part, said: “China’s claim in the Spratlys (Panatag) is very legitimate.”

He maintained that Beijing has historical claims over the strategic waterway similar to what the Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly and consistently said.

On dismantling of weapons in the area, Zhu stressed: “No, it’s impossible.”

“You know why? Because China now is getting bigger, he said.”

The shoal also commands the northeast exit of the sea, so a Chinese military outpost there could stop other countries’ navies from using the waterway.

China’s nine-dash line claims at least 90 percent of the South China Sea.

A UN-backed tribunal, however, ruled last year that the so-called “nine-dash-line” had no legal basis.
It affirmed that Panatag Shoal is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Duterte administration has shelved the ruling for the meantime, supposedly for future use when Manila engages China on the “contentious issues.”

Bower, however, said he hopes that Manila’s legal victory would be put into use.

He also warned that “to squander that opportunity to use such as a high level international legal standard would seem to put the country’s national security and its sovereignty at risk rolling the dice.”

Earlier, Yasay said China has promised not to construct in the disputed islands.

Referring to the state visit of President Rodrigo Duterte to Beijing last October 2016, Yasay said both leaders have “agreed that China has indicated, insofar as I understand it, that they have desisted from building on this (Panatag Shoal).”

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, “China’s position is consistent and clear and is subject to no change” including on building structures on Huangyan Dao (Panatag Shoal).

Recent satellite imagery, however, appears to show China is completing structures intended to house surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) on a series of artificial islands in the South China Sea, a Washington think-tank said last week.

According to images published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, the structures are being installed on Fiery Cross Reef, Mischief Reef and Subi Reef in the Spratlys.

The AMTI, which is part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China appears to have begun construction on the buildings between late September and early November 2016.

“This indicates they are not reactions to the political cycle in Washington, but rather part of a steady pattern of Chinese militarization,” the group wrote.

China has already installed HQ-9 SAMs on Woody Island, but these are only covered by camouflage netting, AMTI said.

The new structures would provide the SAMs with better protection from seawater and the elements.

 http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/expert-doubts-beijing-to-demilitarize-s-china-sea