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China has said
military construction on the islands it controls in the South
China Sea will be limited to necessary defensive requirements,
and that it can do what it likes on its own territory.
The United States has criticized what it has called China's
militarization of its maritime outposts and stressed the need
for freedom of navigation by conducting periodic air and naval
patrols near them that have angered Beijing.
The state-run Defense Times newspaper, in a Tuesday report on
its WeChat account, said Norinco CS/AR-1 55mm anti-frogman
rocket launcher defense systems with the capability to discover,
identify and attack enemy combat divers had been installed on
Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands.
Fiery Cross Reef is administered by China but also claimed by
the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
The report did not say when the defense system was installed,
but said it was part of a response that began in May 2014, when
Vietnamese divers installed large numbers of fishing nets in the
Paracel Islands.
China has conducted extensive land reclamation work at Fiery
Cross Reef, including building an airport, one of several
Chinese-controlled features in the South China Sea where China
has carried out such work.
More than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped through the
South China Sea every year. Besides China's territorial claims
in the area, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and
Taiwan have rival claims.
(Reporting by Philip Wen; Editing by Ben Blanchard)
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