Chinese give US warning as navy chiefs vow to keep building islands in disputed waters

THE head of China’s navy has said it will push ahead with island-building in the South China Sea despite a landmark ruling last week which quashed its claims over virtually all of the waters.

Admiral Wu Shengli made his comments in a meeting with the United States’s top naval officer after another senior Chinese admiral made a thinly veiled warning to Washington that its patrols in the disputed waters would end in “disaster”.

China claims the vast majority of the South China Sea, but The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled last Tuesday that China had no legal basis for its “nine-dash line”, which defines its claims. The ruling also said China had caused permanent harm to the coral reef ecosystem in the Spratly Islands, and that its reefs and holdings in the chain did not entitle it to a 200mile exclusive economic zone.

China’s transformation of partially submerged reefs and outcrops into islands capable of supporting military infrastructure has been a major source of anger for its neighbours and the United States.

Beijing has said it does not recognise the Hague ruling, and Admiral Wu had a defiant message for Beijing’s rivals as he met with US Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson.

“We will never give up on the islands’ construction halfway through,” he said, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV. “China will promote and finish the islands’ construction according to plans, even in the face of pressure – no matter from which country or person.”

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims in the region, and while the US says it does not take sides over territorial disputes, it has angered China by sailing “freedom of navigation” patrols.

Sun Jianguo, an admiral and deputy chief of the joint staff department of the powerful Central Military Commission, said such patrols could lead to an incident on the high seas. “This kind of military freedom of navigation is damaging to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and it could even play out in a disastrous way,” he said. Additional reporting by Christine Wei