China pulls missiles from SCS island

China has removed its new generation surface-to-air missiles from a disputed island in the South China Sea after US withdrew its aircraft carrier ahead of a landmark verdict by an UN-backed tribunal, a media report said on Saturday.

The images from Airbus defence and Space showed a battery of HQ-9 missiles was removed from Woody Island before the Permanent Court of arbitration in The Hague rejected Beijing’s claims over the South China Sea, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted IHS Janes defence magazine as reporting citing satellite images.

The HQ-9s have a range of 200 km and can intercept aircraft and incoming missiles. The report said the missiles, which have been on Woody Island, the largest in the disputed Parcel Islands claimed by China and Vietnam in the South China Sea were probably shipped back to the mainland for maintenance by a Type 072A landing ship docked in the island’s harbour.

The Post quoted Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie as saying the possible removal of the HQ-9s could be a response to the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw its USS John C Stennis carrier from the South China Sea on July 5, showing both Beijing and Washington were keen to reduce the risk of military confrontation.

“The Chinese military needed to show a friendly gesture after the Pentagon withdrew the USS John Stennis to Hawaii,” Mr Li said. “Some proper efforts to disarm will help decrease regional tension. We can see progress in Sino-US high-level military-to-military exchanges, with the US sending their naval operations chief Admiral John Richardson to meet Chinese navy commander Admiral Wu Shengli in the aftermath of the rulings,” he added. Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong said the HQ-9 system may have been due for extensive maintenance after deployment in at least two rounds of naval drills in the last few months in the Paracels.

The removal of the missiles coincided with week-long Chinese naval drills in the Paracels, which ended on July 11. CCTV footage showed the HQ-9 system launching missiles from a frigate.

Meanwhile, Staunch China ally Cambodia is preventing southeast Asia from reaching a consensus on the South China Sea after an international tribunal rejected Beijing’s territorial claims to the waters, a diplomat said on Saturday. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is meeting in Laos for the first time since the UN-backed tribunal ruled earlier this month that China did not have historic rights to vast swathes of the strategic sea. China invests heavily across ASEAN but is accused of trying to divide the bloc by habitually offering aid, soft loans and diplomatic support to key allies Laos and Cambodia.

A southeast Asian diplomat said that only Cambodia is standing in the way of a joint statement on the waters.

“It’s very grave. Cambodia just opposes almost everything, even reference to respect for legal and diplommatic processes which already has been in previous statements,” the diplomat said.

A draft of the communiqué showed the section titled “South China Sea” currently blank. Communist-ruled Laos also has close links with Beijing and has been accused of preventing a united front on the South China Sea issue. But diplomats said as the chair of ASEAN this year Laos is trying to see a statement produced even if it is watered down.

“It does not need to take sides because even if only one country opposes, there is no consensus,” the diplomat said.