By David Tweed

(Bloomberg) — China sparked new questions on its intentions within the South China Sea after it deployed surface-to- air missiles to a contested island, a transfer that got here simply months after President Xi Jinping promised to not militarize the disputed atolls.

Satellite pictures confirmed two batteries of eight HQ-9 surface-to-air missile launchers and a radar system have been deployed on Woody Islandsometime after Feb. 3, Fox News reported. That’s simply days after the U.S. rebuffed China’s efforts to manage one of many world’s busiest transport lanes by sending a warship into the realm.

The positioning of the missiles casts additional doubt on Xi’s pledge at a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington in late September to not militarize the islands and suggests China is ready to escalate tensions so as defend its claims, notably with a ruling anticipated this yr on an arbitration case introduced by the Philippines to a global tribunal.

“If they militarize after saying they won’t, then that is significant for the U.S. debate about what to do for the next phase of the rebalance,” mentioned Michael Pillsbury, director of the Center for Chinese Strategy on the Washington-based Hudson Institute and an adviser to the Pentagon. “This deployment is crossing a red line and means regular military units from the army, navy or air force may now be deployed.”

The navy and financial rebalance to the area is Obama’s signature international coverage initiative after earlier administrations targeted extra on the Middle East and elsewhere. China sees the coverage as an effort to include its influenceas its rising navy clout assessments the U.S. Navy’sdecades-long dominance of the western Pacific.

Under Xi, China has reclaimed land to bolster its claims to greater than 80 % of the waterway that hosts $5 trillion of worldwide transport a yr, including airstrips and lighthouses. Asked concerning the missiles at a briefing in Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi mentioned that restricted self-defense amenities on Woody are in line with China’s self-protection insurance policies and worldwide regulation. He described the report as Western media hype.

Island Building

News of the missiles got here as Obama and leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations wrapped up a two-day summit in California the place they underlined their dedication to making sure “maritime security and safety, including the rights of freedom of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the seas.” Four of the ten Asean members additionally declare parts of the South China Sea.

China has reclaimed 3,000 acres of land within the South China Sea over two years, warned U.S. navy planes and ships from going close to areas it controls and its ships have commonly clashed with Vietnamese and Philippine fishing boats. It is increasing its island constructing within the Paracels, in line with latest pictures posted on the web site of The Diplomat journal. They present dredging and filling at two new websites within the island chain about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from Woody Island.

The Paracels are additionally claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. Taiwan’s protection ministry mentioned it was conscious of Chinese missiles being deployed there. Vietnam considers each effort to construct or renovate amenities on the South China Sea islands with out permission of the federal government to be “illicit,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh mentioned in e-mail response to questions.

‘Concerns Me’

U.S. Pacific Command chief Harry Harris, on a go to to Tokyo, mentioned the presence of missiles on the island would sign a militarization of the realm.

The Chinese “have flown jet fighters out of the Paracels for a number of years now, and so it would not surprise me that they would add some measure of missile defense there, or offensive missiles for that matter,” Admiral Harris mentioned at a briefing. Still, “it concerns me greatly.”

The HQ-9 is a long-range, high-altitude, surface-to-air missile system developed and manufactured by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. It is designed to trace and destroy air targets together with plane and cruise missiles inside a spread of 300 kilometers (185 miles) and as excessive as 7,000 meters (23,000 ft), in line with the official Global Times newspaper. The cruising altitude of a business airliner is usually above 30,000 ft.

‘Into Question’

“While the Chinese foreign ministry could claim that the missiles are defensive in nature, their deployment certainly puts its claim that China wants to avoid further ‘militarization’ of the South China Sea into question,” mentioned Felix Chang, a senior fellow on the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

The deployment might pose a risk to U.S. P8-A Poseidon surveillance plane patrolling the South China Sea. The Chinese navy in May final yr issued eight warnings to a P8-A flying over islands it claims within the Spratly island chain. The U.S. has twice despatched warships inside what China considers its territorial waters and Harris mentioned “more complex” freedom-of- navigation operations have been deliberate. The USS Curtis Wilbur handed close to one other island within the Paracel chain on Jan. 30.

“Washington should bear in mind that China will never turn a blind eye to any attempt that challenges its indisputable sovereignty,” the official Xinhua News Agency mentioned in a commentary Wednesday. “Underestimation of China’s resolve to defend its core pursuits could be a deadly mistake.

–With help from John Boudreau, Angela Greiling Keane, Adela Lin, Keith Zhai, Isabel Reynolds, Toluse Olorunnipa and Ting Shi.

©2016 Bloomberg News