China has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to one of the disputed islands it controls in the South China Sea, Taiwan and U.S. officials said, ratcheting up tensions even as U.S. President Barack Obama urged restraint in the region.
Taiwan defense ministry spokesman Major General David Lo told Reuters on Wednesday the missile batteries had been set up on Woody Island. The island is part of the Paracels chain, under Chinese control for more than 40 years but also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
A U.S. defense official also confirmed the "apparent deployment" of the missiles, first reported by Fox News.
China's foreign minister said reports by "certain Western media" should focus more on China's building of lighthouses to improve shipping safety in the region.
"As for the limited and necessary self-defense facilities that China has built on islands and reefs we have people stationed on, this is consistent with the right to self-protection that China is entitled to under international law so there should be no question about it," Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing.
Taiwan Coast Guard patrol ships are seen during a drill held about 4 nautical miles out of the port …
The Chinese defense ministry told Reuters in a statement that defense facilities on "relevant islands and reefs" had been in place for many years, adding that the latest reports about missile deployment were nothing but "hype".
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year, and has been building runways and other infrastructure on artificial islands to bolster its title.
The United States has said it will continue conducting "freedom of navigation patrols" by ships and aircraft to assure unimpeded passage through the region, where Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the deployment of missiles to the Paracels would not be a surprise but would be a concern, and be contrary to China's pledge not to militarize the region.
"We will conduct more, and more complex, freedom of navigation operations as time goes on in the South China Sea," Harris told a briefing in Tokyo. "We have no intention of stopping."
Credit to Yahoo News
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