Last week, China landed two civilian planes on a newly built airstrip on an artificially constructed island in the South China Sea. Despite getting little media attention, this event has much more critical implications for the whole South China Sea issue and the future stability of the region.
Over the past two years, China has been moving swiftly and mercilessly to enforce its claim over the entire South China Sea. With much of the focus being in the Spratly Islands, this has heightened tensions between the Middle Kingdom and several other nations that also claim area within the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippians, Malaysia and Brunei mainly claim their exclusive economic zones, which is a 200 nautical mile zone around a country set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; but they also have begun to claim many of the small islands that dot the South China Sea. While China has been the most aggressive in its claim, the other nations have also contributed to the rise in tensions in the region.
The reason to why China is asserting its claim on the South China Sea is debated among scholars. The two reasons that I see are most valid are the military and the historical explanations.
To justify its claim on the South China Sea, China often cites historical claims that go back hundreds of years to the Qing Dynasty. In those times, China had control of the entirety of the South China Sea and thus Beijing believes it is time to recognize that once more.
On the other hand, which is the more logical explanation, is the strategic important of the South China Sea to China. The South China Sea is to China what the Caribbean is to the U.S. It's China's backyard and one of the most vital trade routes for not just China, but the world. China would like to be able to control its backyard more effectively as part of its overall strategic growth plan. The way you do this is by placing your naval assets in the region to have more of a presence, but China does not have a large blue water navy in order to do this. Hence their big emphasis on developing an effective blue water navy. To supplement their lack of a blue water navy, China must use island bases and aircraft in order to create a presence.
Which brings us to the events of last week.
There are few islands in the South China Sea and even fewer that can support aircraft. To remedy this, China has been using its economic machine to build islands on reefs out in the South China Sea. One of the larger of these islands, Fiery Cross Reef, has recently been completed enough to where planes can be landed on it. With a 3000 meter long runway, China can launch and land any type of aircraft it wants, which it demonstrated last week.
What does this mean for the overall picture? China is succeeding in its goal of expanding its military presence. China will soon be able to fly planes and refuel ships outside of its mainland. This will increase the presence of Chinese military operations, growing the chances of unplanned contact between Chinese and other nation's ships, particularly the U.S. Navy. These unintentional interactions can further strain tensions within the region making it more volatile. The U.S. and Chinese Navies do not have a formal set of rules to follow when they come across each other. To prevent conflict, both nations need to develop such rules of engagement. With all of the attention being placed on the Middle East, the Near East is being neglected by the media despite the President's "shift to Asia" initiative. China successfully landing 2 planes on an island it built shows the capacity at which China can grow and shows how far they will push the envelope in pursuit of their strategic goals.
