WASHINGTON — Recent satellite photographs show that China appears to have built reinforced aircraft hangars on its holdings in the disputed South China Sea, a Washington-based think tank said on Tuesday (Aug 9).

Pictures taken in late July show that the hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly Islands have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said.

“Except for a brief visit by a military transport plane to Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year, there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts. But the rapid construction of reinforced hangars at all three features indicates that this is likely to change,” CSIS said in a report.

United States Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift said on Tuesday it had not been confirmed that the hangers were for military use, but the uncertainty could add to tensions.

“That increases the angst and the uncertainty, that lack of transparency, and that is generally destabilising as opposed to a stabilising action,” he said.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which US$5 trillion (S$7 trillion) in shipborne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House last September, he had said China “does not intend to pursue militarisation” in the Spratlys.

The images have emerged about a month after an international court in The Hague ruled against China’s sweeping claims in the resource-rich region, a ruling emphatically rejected by Beijing. The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarise their holdings in the South China Sea.

China has repeatedly denied doing so, saying the facilities were for civilian and self-defence use, and in turn criticised US patrols and exercises for ramping up tensions.

“China has said many times, construction on the Spratly Islands and reefs is multipurpose, mixed, and with the exception of necessary military defensive requirements, more for serving all forms of civilian needs,” China’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.
However, CSIS said its satellite photos strongly suggest otherwise. Besides their size — the smallest hangars are 18.2m to 21.3m wide, more than enough to accommodate China’s largest fighter jets — all show signs of structural strengthening.

“They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose,” Mr Gregory Poling, director of the centre’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said yesterday. “They are reinforced to take a strike.” The largest hangars, 61m wide, are “more than enough for strategic bombers and refuellers,” Mr Poling added.

Some analysts said the latest construction is an indication of China flexing its military might in the area.

Dr Chong Ja Ian, an international relations expert at the National University of Singapore, told TODAY the structures on the islands indicated China’s wish to reserve the right to deploy military assets on the features it controls in the Spratlys.

“This can enable China to challenge freedom of navigation operations and enforce its preferences over the South China Sea more effectively should the leadership in Beijing choose to do so,” he said.

His views were echoed by Dr Le Hong Hiep, a research fellow at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute, who said China’s construction of the hangars as well as other facilities on its artificial islands is part of its strategy to militarise the outposts.

“China’s real intention is to use these facilities to establish its de facto control over the whole South China Sea and to gain a strategic upper hand over the US. Such facilities fit well with China’s strategy to help it deter and constrain US military intervention into the South China Sea,” he told TODAY in an email, adding that Beijing is not targeting the Asean claimant states.

“As such, Beijing will be able to better protect its submarine base at Hainan, and gain a strategic edge in the event of a major crisis in the South China Sea or around the Taiwan Straits.”

The construction of such facilities should raise concerns of both the US and claimant states like Vietnam, said Mr Zhang Baohui, a mainland security expert at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University.

“China’s likely military calculations for these facilities could be for hedging purposes in the events of military conflicts with Vietnam,” he told TODAY. “The US has concerns. However, it is obviously not capable of stopping China’s advancement,” he said in citing US’ freedom of navigation operations that “failed to create any impact on China’s actions.”

However, some cautioned that the hangars were not a response to The Hague ruling and had likely been under construction for some time.

“As long as China does not permanently station a squadron of aircraft there, I do not think we should read much into it and it is not feasible to leave things uncompleted,” Dr Alan Chong Chia Siong, associate professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies told , adding that military construction was similar to civilian construction, which are built in phases. AGENCIES