US Claims it Can Blow Up China’s Artificial Islands

As part of its response to the militarization of Chinese man-made islands in the South China Seas, the United States ramped up ‘freedom of navigation’ operations supporting free international trade and passage.

Now, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie has stated that the US military has had a great deal of experience taking down small islands since the Second World War. Although he later added that he had not been trying to send any sort of message to the People’s China, such a statement only exacerbates the existing tensions between the two superpowers.

Since 2014, China has been building artificial islands on top of existing islands, rocks, and coral reefs. The nation uses a fleet of dredgers, or ships that can suck up and transport sand from the seafloor, to gather enough material to support airstrips, buildings, and other military installations. Cement can then be laid on top of the sand to create a stable, artificial structure.

Although these operations are very costly, Chinese officials feel that they are necessary to assert military presence in the South China Sea. This region hosts a great deal of tension between China and neighboring Southeast Asian nations—including Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia—which have made conflicting territorial claims.

The sea encompasses the Spratly and Paracel Islands, and may contain up to 17.7 billions of tons of valuable crude oil.. The area also serves as a vital shipping route, seeing passage from more than half the tonnage of the world’s crude oil and about 40% of light natural gas supply. China sends well over half of its maritime trading vessels through this waterway.

Currently, the Spratly Islands are controlled mainly by the Vietnamese, while the Paracels are completely under Chinese control. Increasing demand for oil and other resources, namely fish, may be compelling China to expand its military presence and influence in the area. Although most international legal experts have concluded that China has made invalid historical claims to territories in this sea, China asserts that it has sovereignty over its territorial waters according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The US, however, begs to differ. It is not a signatory member of UNCLOS, yet supports the idea of free access of the South China Sea under international law. It has accused China of making excessive maritime claims and has continued to send in aircraft and naval vessels to conduct ‘freedom of navigation’ operations throughout these waters.

In May 2015, the US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter sent a warning to China to stop building its manmade islands and vowed that the US would not halt its military operations in the region. Rex Tillerson has also commented on blocking access to these artificial islands, eliciting a threat of a large-scale war from the state-controlled communist newspaper Global Times.

The issue of territorial disputes in the South China Sea is not an easy one to solve. With continued economic development, China will continue to look to ways to expand its military presence and its supply of natural resources. This is true not only for the region of the South China Sea, but for the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and for pieces of territory contested between China and India.

With talk of “blowing up” the Chinese-built artificial islands in the South China Sea, the escalation of Sino-US maritime tensions into a military conflict has become even more likely. China will only continue to maintain its grip over this area as the world continues to fix its attention on other regional issues, such as the nuclear disarmament of North Korea.

Featured Image via: Breaking Defense