CHINA FLEXES ITS MILITARY MUSCLE

Beijing exploits crisis to assert control of strategically vital South China Sea – and US sends three warships in response

CHINA has taken advantage of the world’s struggle with Covid-19 to mount a disturbing display of military firepower and push its illegal claims to land and oilfields in a two-million-square-mile area in the South China Sea.

The moves have triggered an immediate response from US President Donald Trump. Deeply worried about Beijing’s insatiable desire for land and the way its military has occupied areas by stealth, Washington has sent three warships to the region. China’s escalation of war games in the region follows decades of aggression by the Communist government. It is ignoring international law as it militarises islands and reefs, plans to exploit oil and mineral fields, and hopes to build nuclear reactors in the area.

No wonder experts fear the South China Sea is where a war involving China, the United States and Russia could begin.

China’s defence minister, General Wei Fenghe, has said his country would ‘fight at all costs’ if a war occurred with America. Neighbouring nations Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei have all become embroiled in the crisis.

The South China Sea is vital to the global economy. It contains the world’s most lucrative shipping lanes, carrying trade worth about £3.4trillion a year. An estimated 12 per cent of Britain’s seaborne trade – £97billion of imports and exports a year – passes through the region.

The dispute over the region dates back to 1947 when, in the wake of Japan’s surrender in 1945, Beijing drew up a so-called ‘Nine-Dash’ line, marking out the 90 per cent of the South China Sea over which it claims sovereignty. This infuriated other countries – they complain that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is being flouted.

Central to the dispute are nations’ rival claims to ownership of the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos. Whichever country owns these islands can lay claim to the waters and resources around them.

China has transformed three disputed tidal reefs into military bases. Satellite pictures show substantial infrastructure on the ‘Big Three’ reefs – Subi, Mischief and Fiery Cross. Another airfield on Woody Island is equipped with missiles, while fighter jets and radar systems have also been stationed there.

With a furious President Trump saying the Covid-19 virus has hit the US harder than the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and blaming China for the pandemic, the situation can only get worse...

MALAYSIA and BRUNEI: Claim parts of the South China Sea which fall into their Exclusive Exclusion Zones under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Malaysia lays claim to several of the Spratlys. VIETNAM: Fiercely disputes China’s actions, saying Beijing did not claim sovereignty over Paracel and Spratly islands until the 1940s. Vietnam says it has ruled the islands since the 17th Century – and has documentary proof. PARACEL ISLANDS: Chinese and Vietnamese have clashed after China drilled for oil. SHIPPING LANES: The South China Sea is called the ‘Second Persian Gulf’, such is its importance economically. It carries an estimated third of the world’s maritime trade – worth £3.4 trillion a year. JAPAN: China’s most significant strategic challenger. As an island nation, these shipping lanes are Japan’s energy and economic lifeline. Despite the country’s post-war pacifist constitution, it has sent a warship to the area for an antisubmarine operation with the US Navy.