The US secretary of state, John Kerry, is flying into Beijing for a weekend of difficult talks with Chinese officials, likely to be dominated by escalating tensions about the South China Sea.
Washington has been very publicly contemplating a stronger response to a large-scale Chinese land reclamation project in disputed waters, which is turning submerged reefs into airstrips, and creating thousands of hectares of dry land.
Several regional powers including the Philippines and Vietnam have overlapping claims to the area, mostly uninhabited reefs and atolls that lie in one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
Their competing demands have festered for years, occasionally blowing up, but China’s artificial islands could potentially change the balance of power in the area.
Kerry’s trip was scheduled long before the problem blew up into an urgent diplomatic dispute, but it has now become a focus of the visit.
He promised the meetings will leave China “in absolutely no doubt” about Washington’s commitment to ensuring freedom of navigation and aviation in the South China Sea. One of the options on the table is making air and naval patrols closer to newly created islands.
China has responded by warning the US not to take “risky or provocative” actions, and accusing the Philippines – which has backed greater American involvement – of magnifying the dispute.
“China will firmly uphold its sovereignty and rights and interests,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing on Friday.
The US risks making the area a “powder keg”, hardline nationalist tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial, adding that officials in Beijing should not forget that China is a nuclear power ready to defend its interests.
“If such an aggressive plan is approved, it will create huge waves in the South China Sea and a confrontation between both sides can hardly be avoided,” the newspaper said. “The US can expect potent countermeasures.”
The artificial island construction is a legitimate project with peaceful motives, “such as offering humanitarian shelter for passing ships in the typhoon season”, the paper said.
Tensions mounted further after a senior US defence official said the country plans to put long-range bomber planes in Australia, that could be used as deterrents against China.
The Australian government, which hopes to sign a long-awaited free-trade deal with Beijing later this year, moved fast to dismiss that report, saying the US assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs had “misspoken”.
Many experts and military officials in America expect Beijing to declare an Air Defence Identification Zone (Adiz) in the area, Reuters reported, after building up some of the airstrips and radar stations they would need to support it.
Adizes are not governed by formal treaties or laws but are used by some countries to extend control beyond national borders, requiring civilian and military aircraft to identify themselves or face possible military interception.
“It’s not inevitable but if we are betting paychecks I’ll bet that they will eventually declare one, I just don’t know when,” a senior US commander familiar with the situation in Asia told the news agency.
Additional reporting by Luna Lin
