Beijing sends fighter jets to disputed island chain in South China Sea

Beijing has stationed eight warplanes on a disputed island in the South China Sea, escalating tensions over territorial claims.

Satellite images showed eight fighter aircraft on the Woody Island airstrip in the Paracels chain.

Beijing has stationed eight warplanes on a strategic disputed island in the South China Sea, escalating tensions over territorial claims.

Satellite images from July 15 showed at least four aircraft on Woody Island in the Paracels chain, believed to be J-11B air superiority fighters. More pictures the following day showed them in a different area of the island along with four other aircraft, thought to be JH-7 anti-ship fighter-bombers, according to Radio Free Asia, a broadcast service backed by the US government.

It follows war games by both the Chinese and US forces in the area. The US manoeuvres involved two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan, while China fired more than 3000 missiles at moving targets in a live-fire exercise.

The US military flew two warplanes and a reconnaissance plane on Wednesday to assert international navigation rights in the area, according to monitoring groups.

Concerns are growing that the sabre-rattling could intensify at a time when US-China relations are at their lowest since the governments established diplomatic ties in 1979. “If there is a little scuffle in the South China Sea, it could soon escalate,” Ezra Vogel, a long-time China expert, told the Global Times, a party-run newspaper.

“And if the countries failed to control it, it could be devastating and everybody would lose.”

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has rejected Chinese claims in the South China Sea as “completely unlawful”. Six Asian nations have competing claims to islands in the area though Beijing asserts its rights over almost the entirety of the sea, which is rich in natural resources and home to some busy shipping routes.

When asked about the deployment to Woody Island, Beijing insisted that it was within its rights to use the land as a base. “The Paracels are Chinese territory,” said Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesman.

Beijing has reclaimed land and militarised several islands in the Paracels and the Spratly chain, setting up two new regions this year to cement claims.

On Wednesday the US, Australia and Japan carried out an exercise in the Philippine Sea. Aircraft Spots, a Twitter account that monitors military air movements, said that two US bombers departed on Wednesday from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam to the South China Sea via the Sulu Sea entrance.

Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, hopes to visit China before the end of the year, which may ease tensions in the South China Sea. The Global Times said it remained to be seen if Mr Esper’s intention was a genuine goodwill gesture or a “smoke bomb”.

The Times