Just as everyone was recovering from the (Gregorian) New Year festivities, a Chinese test-flight plane landed on a newly completed airfield in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on Jan 2, in a demonstration of the country’s growing military capabilities in the region. It was followed by another two flights. Although the tests used civilian planes, the airfield is said to be capable of handling advanced military planes, and serving as a supply and refuelling facility for China’s military in the sea.
China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the test flights were to check the facilities on the runaway, built last year on the expanded Fiery Cross Reef. China has occupied the reef since 1988 and recently conducted land reclamation around it to expand it into an island.
Vietnam protested the tests, saying they infringed on the country’s sovereignty over Fiery Cross Reef. The Philippines has overlapping claims over the reef. Vietnam’s protest came as the nation is disappointed with the way China conducts itself in South China Sea issues. This is particularly in regard to the China-Vietnam Agreement on the Basic Principles Guiding the Settlement of Sea Issues, as well the Declaration of Conduct of Parties 2002 (DOC 2002), which was signed by all claimants in the South China Sea. In 1988, China and Vietnam clashed at Johnson Reef, which ended with a Vietnamese ship being sunk. The deadly clash remains a point of tension in China-Vietnam relations.
The United States, the Philippines and Japan have stated that such tests raised tensions and threatened regional stability.
In its 2016 Outlook, the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific suggested that peace and stability in the Asia Pacific continued to deteriorate, and confidence that the region could preserve order and stability was diminishing. The main challenges to peace and stability in the region are the disputes in the South China Sea and interests of external players. Recent developments that have contributed to destabilise the situation include, post-DOC 2002, land reclamation by China, the Philippines’ legal case against China to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, as well the US Navy’s efforts at ensuring freedom of navigation.
Fiery Cross Reef is a small man-made island and not a fully-fledged military base, unlike Guam. However it is capable of sustaining the welfare of military personnel and facilitating regular patrols by the South China Sea Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.
This alone has raised concerns among opposing militaries in the region. Further activity by China on the reef, as well as Spratly Islands, is deemed to contribute to destabilising the region. The expansion and construction on Fiery Cross Reef began in August 2014 at an estimated US$12 billion (RM49 billion), and it is understood that such works in the South China Sea are funded by PLA. The newly constructed Fiery Cross Reef now appears to be the largest “island”, bigger than the natural island of Itu Aba, occupied by Taiwan. This suggests that developments on the reef are not only civilian work, but also have strong military elements.
Experts predict that the facilities on the reef, such as radars, can provide China with domain control, as well as detect unfriendly aircraft. In this way, it provides a great deterrence advantage to PLA and allows its forces to intercept or deny access to foreign vessels and planes.
The capabilities that China is building on Fiery Cross Reef and other features, such as Gaven Reef and Cuateron Reef, are developing in tandem with the country’s aspiration of having the navy and a combined force of a regional power. The transformation of the Chinese military is going hand in hand with the evolution in the nation’s maritime strategy. The anti-access strategy of being an operational concept of PLA was adopted in the late 1970s and operationalised in stages, according to the objectives drawn up by China’s defence policies from the 1980s. The strategy was formulated in a manner similar to an active defence strategy and this has alarmed US military forces, since it is aimed at disrupting and denying the latter access to the Western Pacific. The primary objective is to deny access to the military of an enemy force into China’s theatre of operations at land, sea and airspace.
To effectively control the airspace, PLA established an air defence identification zone, referred to as the “East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone” (ADIZ), on Nov 24, 2013 in the East China Sea. The air regulations under ADIZ means that any aircraft — whether commercial or military — flying in the zone must “report a flight plan to the Chinese government; maintain radio communication and respond to identification inquiries; maintain radar transponder function; and exhibit clear nationality and logo markings”. If this regulation is not met, PLA will respond militarily to the “enemy” because the act is considered an intrusion into Chinese airspace.
The concern now is whether China will also implement ADIZ in the South China Sea. The test flights on Fiery Cross Reef suggest that the country is moving in a direction that will raise tensions in the region.
Sumathy Permal is senior researcher at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia