China test flights rattling the region

Manila—Tensions broke out anew in the South China Sea after Beijing announced early January that it had sent a civilian plane to test a three-kilometer runway it had built on Fiery Cross Reef, one of the sites of China’s island-building activities. A statement released by Xinhua on new flights carried out by China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines followed this.

Vietnam immediately filed a formal protest against the move, saying China’s actions are causing anxiety and could endanger freedom of overflight. The United States and Japan both expressed concerns, with Tokyo saying that China’s unilateral actions are an attempt to change realities on the ground and create a fait accompli.

Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario later said Manila would protest the flights and raised concerns on the repercussions of the Chinese provocative activities “if they are not challenged.”

Del Rosario’s British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Hammond, who visited Manila, said the freedom of navigation and overflights were “non-negotiable” and constituted “red lines” for the United Kingdom.

China has transformed Fiery Cross Reef, a low-tide elevation that generates no maritime entitlements under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), into an artificial island with an airstrip and other facilities.

While analysts said China could have been trying to alter the Fiery Cross Reef and other low-tide elevations to gain maritime entitlements, experts said this was not allowed under the Unclos. Scientists and environmental groups worldwide have also scored the island building as damaging to the Spratly’s well-documented rich marine environment.

Prior to the test flights, Beijing has come under intense scrutiny because of its attempts to restrict freedom of navigation and overflight in the Spratlys. Beijing challenged Freedom of Navigation operations and patrols from the United States and Australia.

In December, China reportedly used audio warnings, flashing lights and flare warnings against Philippine Air Force overflights over several features in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) under the Kalayaan Group of Islands. The flights are a standard part of the Philippines’s usual maritime patrol in the area, which Manila had been regularly conducting without any Chinese protest for the past decades. China likewise used audio warnings against other civilian flights in the area.

These recent developments have worsened the situation in the South China Sea, where China has carried out its massive and ecologically destructive island building amidst calls from the international community for Beijing to exercise self-restraint and adhere to relevant regional agreements and international law.

China’s neighbors have collectively criticized China’s show of force amid new realities, even as Beijing’s spokesmen continued to publicly affirm its commitment to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)–China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

The Asean, composed of 10 Southeast Asian nations including the four claimant-states—the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam—have made clear their concerns on China’s island-building activities at the Joint Communiqué issued by their ministers following a meeting on August 4, 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They bewailed that these activities have worsened the situation as they have eroded trust and brought tensions to new highs.

Beijing’s relations with its neighbors have soured since 2012, after China took increasingly assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea. There was a standoff between China and that year after Beijing prevented Manila from arresting illegal Chinese fishermen caught poaching in waters off Scarborough Shoal. China grabbed control of the said shoal, prompting the Philippines to file a case against China at a United Nations -backed arbitration tribunal. Beijing has refused to participate in the proceedings and said it will not honor the tribunal’s decision.

China’s recent actions only highlighted the urgency and importance of the UN Tribunal decision. Philippine authorities have said the decision could be announced early in 2016 and is legally binding, including on China.

In 2014, a standoff between Vietnam and China over Beijing’s unilateral act of moving an oil rig in waters occupied by both nations resulted in popular anti-China protests and riots across Vietnam. Relations between Hanoi and Beijing plunged into an all-time low following the ruckus.

China’s frantic building of artificial islands beginning 2014 have prompted concerns that Beijing might be trying to gain greater ability to flex its military muscle in the disputed areas, in the face of its legally flawed nine-dash line claim over the entire South China Sea.

In 2002, China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have signed a declaration of conduct on the South China Sea where they pledged to act with self-restraint and refrain from non-use of force or threat of force. Observers noted that China’s recent actions contravened the salient points of agreement in the declaration.

The Asean is hoping to sign a more formal code of conduct to bind all parties to the dispute and bring peace in the region, even with China seen to stall negotiations on such a code. PNA