Japan yesterday warned China that its extensive land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea does not make ownership “a done deal,” after Beijing announced it had almost finished its controversial island-building.
The rebuke came after Washington urged China against militarization of the area, saying it risked escalating tensions, even as satellite pictures have shown a runway long enough to let even the biggest aircraft land.
It also came as details emerged of a joint exercise between Japan and the Philippines, as the relationship blossoms between the two nations most prepared to push back against Beijing’s perceived rising aggression.
“We hold serious and significant concerns about the unilateral actions aimed at changing the status quo, which are bound to increase tension,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
“With the completion of the reclamation, we must not accept the land reclamation as a done deal. We demand [China] not take unilateral actions that bring irreversible and physical changes,” he added.
Responding to the comments, Beijing countered that “it makes no sense” for Japan to press China on the issue.
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands [南沙群島] and we do not need to prove this by building facilities on the islands and reefs,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) told a regular press briefing, using the Chinese name for the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
Japan has long criticized China’s attempts to change the status quo unilaterally and by force, mindful of its own dispute with Beijing over islands in the East China Sea.
The US says China has created 800 hectares of new land in the South China Sea in the past 18 months.
Manila yesterday said that a 3km runway on Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑礁) — big enough to handle a Boeing 747 — was “75 percent complete”.
“This can serve as China’s forward operating base, a refueling stop for ships and aircraft,” Philippine Department of Defense spokesman Peter Galvez said.
“This will allow China easy reach in the West Philippine Sea [the Filipino name for a section of the South China Sea claimed by Manila] and extend their reach up to Australia and other parts of the South Pacific,” Galvez said.
“They can do anything they want there. It could be their command and control center,” he added.
Beijing claims almost all the South China Sea, despite a number of overlapping territorial claims by Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
Beijing yesterday also rolled out more details of the building work it is undertaking in the disputed South China Sea, listing lighthouses, communications stations and other facilities for civilian and emergency use.
The country’s top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said in a short statement it had drawn up a plan for the use of civil facilities on the Spratly Islands.
These facilities would help improve living conditions there and also fulfil China’s international obligations on environmental monitoring, disaster relief and navigational safety, the commission said.
Large lighthouses for navigation are included in the building plan, along with base stations for wireless navigation equipment, weather stations to monitor tsunamis, scientific research stations and equipment to tackle oil spills, it added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS