China lands military jet on disputed reef

‘Plane evacuated sick workers’

Beijing landed a military plane on a disputed South China Sea reef it has built up into an artificial island, state media said on Monday, in the first official confirmation of such a flight.

An Air Force plane landed on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys archipelago on Sunday to evacuate sick workers, the official People’s Liberation Army Daily said.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, even waters close to its Southeast Asian neighbours, and has created artificial islands in an effort to assert its claims.

It has significantly expanded Fiery Cross, which is also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, drawing international criticism. In 2014, China began work on a 3,000-metre runway on the reef, which is around 1,000 kilometres from its island province of Hainan.

Beijing in January carried out several of what it called civilian flights to Fiery Cross, enraging Hanoi.

This weekend’s flight came just days after US defence secretary Ashton Carter visited a warship close to flashpoint waters, after announcing joint naval patrols with the Philippines. On the day of Mr Carter’s trip, Beijing said that one of its top military officials had visited a South China Sea island.

Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, observed building work, the defence ministry said, without giving a precise date or location for the visit.

Washington regularly accuses Beijing of militarising the South China Sea, saying it has built runways and deployed weapons to the islands. Beijing denies the accusations and says US patrols have ramped up tensions.

As well as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims to parts of the sea, which are home to some of the world’s most important shipping lanes and believed to sit atop vast oil reserves.

The Philippines, which also claims islands and reefs controlled by China, criticised the move. Tensions have risen in the last two years after China transformed Fiery Cross and other coral reefs in the Spratly Island chain into islands that could be used to project its military might far from the Chinese mainland.

Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also claim territory in the South China Sea that China says belongs to it. The new islands in the South China Sea have become a source of tension between Beijing and Washington, which refuses to view them legally as islands entitled to territorial seas and special economic zones. While the United States is not a claimant state, it says it has a national interest in the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea and in freedom of navigation in waters that are critical for world trade.