A newly built airstrip on a disputed island in the South China Sea is only long enough for China to stage patrol aircraft, but it could still boost Beijing’s ability to collect intelligence over an area that includes Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, a security analyst told Radio Free Asia.
Satellite photos from Earth imaging company Planet Labs PBC this week showed that a 600-meter (2,000-foot) airstrip was built on Triton Island in the Paracel chain between July 12 and Aug. 15.
At that length, fighter jets and bombers couldn’t use the airstrip, according to Raymond Powell, from the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation in Stanford University.
But medium-sized drones and small manned turboprop aircraft could operate from the island, which would help China assert its jurisdiction over the area, he said.
The images also show vehicle tracks across much of the island, as well as containers and construction equipment, according to the AP.
But another analyst, Greg Poling of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said the long line seen on the image probably isn’t an airstrip.
“It appears to be a berm, or an elevated roadway, with spurs leading off to two new areas on which buildings are being constructed,” he said. “We won’t know more until the construction advances a bit.”
The Paracel Islands, or Xisha Islands in Chinese, are claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan but occupied entirely by Beijing since 1974 after the Chinese Navy defeated the then South Vietnamese Navy in a brief sea battle that killed more than 50 South Vietnamese sailors.
Triton is the closest island in the chain to Vietnam. If China decides to permanently station patrol aircraft there, it would be difficult for Vietnam to match with an equal presence, Powell said.
“China has had years of practice in the development of its maritime military bases,” he told RFA. “It’s not surprising that this airfield is progressing rapidly.”
Woody Island’s missiles
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang told reporters on Thursday that “all activities in the Paracel Islands conducted without Vietnamese permission are violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty.”
The construction of an airstrip on Triton “would complicate the situation and are not beneficial for peace, stability, and the security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight” in the South China Sea, she said.
Woody Island – also in the Paracels – serves as the headquarters for Sansha City, which China established in 2012 to administer all the islands it claims in the South China Sea and their surrounding waters.
In January, RFA reported that satellite imagery showed a Chinese air defense facility, with silos for permanent surface-to-air missiles, on Woody Island, which is about 160 km (100 miles) northwest of Triton.
“With its nearby airbase at Woody Island already fully functional, reclaiming land to build out the Triton airfield to the point where China could station combat aircraft would be very provocative,” Powell said.
“Beijing has probably determined what it would gain in combat capability is not worth the political and financial costs it would incur to do so,” he said.
China also occupies some of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands in Chinese) in the South China Sea that are claimed by some other neighboring countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The new airstrip on Triton doesn’t have any real implications for the Philippines, according to Powell.
While many nations have claims to the South China Sea with its busy shipping lanes, teaming fisheries and the likelihood of vast petroleum reserves, the dispute is especially intense between Vietnam and China.
On Thursday, a Chinese Coast Guard ship entered a Vietnamese oil and gas field, Powell wrote on Twitter. The same ship patrolled the area to assert China's claimed jurisdiction on July 27-28 and Aug. 8-9, he said.
Over the past few months, China has repeatedly sent Coast Guard, militia and survey vessels to waters under Vietnam’s jurisdiction.
Edited by Matt Reed and Joshua Lipes.