China gov’t invests $1.6B to beef up Spratlys claim

From the Daily Tribune (Jan 6): China gov’t invests $1.6B to beef up Spratlys claim

China is infusing nearly $1.6 billion into Sansha City of Hainan province in what is being viewed as efforts to bolster its claim to the contested Spratly islands that the Chinese government earlier had placed under the jurisdiction of the Hainan provincial government which passed new regulations recently allowing its local police “to board, seize and expel foreign ships.”  The official state publication China Daily said the huge investment will be used to develop infrastructure, including air and sea ports of the city, which is located in the Paracels which is being claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) earlier had lodged an official protest with China over the establishment of Sansha City that covers parts of the Spratlys that the Philippines claims as part of its territory. Last week, Chinese military forces also held air and ground defense drills in Sansha City which the DFA also protested. “No military activities shall be undertaken by any country within the Philippine maritime and territorial jurisdiction without the consent and authority by the Philippine government,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a statement.

Citing information from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the South Chiana Morning Post said drills were held on Jan. 2 in Sansha City in the Paracels, the city of Shenyang in northeast China’s Liaoning province and Jinan, the capital city of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong. The PLA said drills were also held on New Year’s Day in the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang, also a province in eastern China. The exercises were aimed at “enhancing soldiers’ combat consciousness and capabilities” in the event of a surprise attack, a Chinese government statement said. Some 1,000 civilians and 6,000 Chinese troops are stationed as “permanent residents” in Sansha City, established in June last year as a Hainan prefecture to exercise administrative powers over all of the Spratlys islands.

Amid China’s increasingly aggressive stance on the territorial disputes, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida indicated plans to visit the Philippines this month on his first trip abroad as foreign minister supposedly to strengthen Japan’s ties with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). China is pushing its claims to the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which China calls the Diaoyus. Kishida is expected to discuss bilateral cooperation in maritime security, including possible supply of coast guard vessels to the country.

The year 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of exchanges between Japan and Asean, with a special summit of the heads of the 10 Asean members being planned in Japan in December for the first time in a decade.

Japan also scrambled fighter jets yesterday to head off a Chinese state-owned plane that flew near the disputed islands, a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said. The Japanese jets were mobilised after a Chinese maritime aircraft ventured some 120 kilometers north of Senkaku islands at around 12 p.m. (0300 GMT), the spokesman said. The Chinese Y-12 twin-turboprop later left the zone without entering Japanese airspace over the islands, he added. It was the first time Japanese fighter jets had been scrambled this year to counter Chinese aircraft approaching the islands, the spokesman said. Japan dispatched fighter jets last month after a Chinese state-owned plane breached airspace over the islands, while Chinese government ships have moved in and out of waters there for the past few months.

The confrontations have become commonplace since Japan nationalised the East China Sea islands in September, a move it insisted amounted to nothing more than a change of ownership of what was already Japanese territory. But Beijing reacted with fury, with observers saying riots that erupted across China in the weeks following had at least tacit government backing.

The Kyodo news agency reported that Tokyo is considering introducing US spy drones to boost surveillance of its territorial waters near the Senkaku islands. The Japanese defense ministry hopes to introduce the unmanned Global Hawk aircraft by 2015 “in a bid to counter China’s growing assertiveness at sea, especially when it comes to the Senkaku Islands”, the news agency said, citing unnamed government officials.

The development of roads, water supply and drainage systems will be stepped-up in the new “capital” city of Sansha on Yongxing, one of the islands that make up the disputed Paracel chain, Luo Baoming, Communist Party secretary of southern Hainan Province had said. Luo also said steps will also be taken to enforce China’s “legal rights” in the region, which includes other island chains which are the subject of competing claims by Asian countries.

Beijing enraged Vietnam and caused concern in Washington when it announced the establishment of a new city and military garrison at Sansha in July. The island, under the control of Hainan Province, will have administrative control over a region that encompasses not only the Paracels, but Macclesfield Bank, a largely sunken atoll to the east, and the Spratly Islands to the south. The sovereignty of each remains a matter of dispute. “To safeguard our legal rights in the South China Sea, we are now coordinating between the relevant departments in order to set a more unified, and efficient law enforcing body,” Luo said. Domestic media reported in August that work had begun on sewage disposal and waste collection facilities for the island’s roughly 1,000 residents.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, which is home to vital shipping lanes and substantial proven and estimated oil and gas deposits. Taiwan and Asean members the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia all have rival claims on areas of the sea, while the United States is also watching China’s increased assertiveness closely.

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