China places anti-aircraft missiles on disputed area

After satellite images showed HQ-9 missile launchers deployed at a South China Sea island, the Communist nation denied reports calling it media hype

Beijing: China has deployed long-range anti-aircraft missiles on a disputed South China Sea island, according to a media report yesterday that was downplayed by the Communist nation as Western news outlets’ attempt to create “stories”.

This file aerial view shows part of the city of Sansha on the  Woody island in the disputed Paracel chain. Pic/AFP

Satellite images showed two batteries of eight surface-to-air HQ-9 missile launchers as well as a radar system on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea.

The report comes even as US President Barack Obama called for “tangible steps”to settle territorial disputes in the resource-rich region. According to the images, a beach on the island was empty on February 3, but the missiles were visible by February 14.

A US official said the imagery showed the HQ-9 air defence system with a range of over 200 kilometres, which would pose a threat to any civilian or military airplane flying close by. It is the same island where a US Navy destroyer sailed close to another contested island a few weeks ago.

Woody Island is part of the Paracels chain, under Chinese control for more than 40 years also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. The missiles arrived on the island over the past week.

China decribed the report as media hype. “We believe this is an attempt by certain Western media to create news stories,”Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Claiming that the development was largely civilian oriented and benefited the region, Wang pointed to the construction of light houses, weather stations, and rescue and shelter facilities for fishermen. “All of those are actions that China, as the biggest
littoral state in the South China Sea, has undertaken to provide more public goods and services to the international community and play its positive role there,”he said.

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