China Lands Test Flight in Disputed Island Chain

Vietnam, Philippines unhappy about flight to new airfield in the South China Sea’s Spratlys

 The Wall Street Journal

By TE-PING CHEN

Updated Jan. 3, 2016 3:54 p.m. ET

105 COMMENTS

BEIJING—China said it landed a test flight on a newly completed airfield in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a sign of its growing military capabilities in the region.

The flight drew a quick protest from Vietnam, which said China had “seriously violated” its sovereignty. A Philippines foreign ministry spokesman said Manila, another claimant in the Spratlys, also planned to lodge a protest with the Chinese.

According to a statement released late Saturday by the Chinese foreign ministry, Beijing has completed construction of an airfield on Fiery Cross Reef, and recently used a civil aircraft to conduct a flight testing whether the facilities were up to civil-aviation standards.

Vietnam said it lodged an official protest with the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi over the action. The Spratly Islands are the subject of overlapping claims by several neighbors, including the Philippines, a U.S. ally.

The U.S. reacted with concern to news of the Chinese flight, and said it underscored the need to finish work on a regional code of conduct.

“We are concerned that these test flights have exacerbated tensions and are inconsistent with the region’s commitments to exercise restraint from actions that could complicate or escalate disputes,” said Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a State Department spokeswoman. U.S. officials are encouraging countries with claims in the area to “actively reduce tensions” by refraining from actions that threaten stability, she said.

The test flight came after a visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, which was partly designed to address the souring relationship between the two countries over territorial disputes.

In 2014, the two countries tussled in a two-month standoff in the South China Sea after Beijing moved a rig to explore for oil and gas into waters claimed by both nations. The move set off anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam and marked the sharpest deterioration in relations between the two neighbors in years.

In the statement posted on the Vietnamese foreign ministry’s website Saturday, ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said China’s action went against “the common conception of the high-ranking leaders of the two countries, and against an agreement on basic principles for solving maritime issues between Vietnam and China.”

With Beijing’s latest acknowledgment, China has now completed two airfields in the South China Sea, said Andrew Erickson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Apart from the Spratly Islands airfield, Beijing also has an operational airfield on Woody Island, which is located southeast of China’s Hainan Island and is a part of the Paracel island chain, also claimed by Vietnam.

With a length of around three kilometers, the completed airfield is evidence of China’s ability to flex its military power in the region, he said. “While this was a civil test, this airport is clearly very militarily capable, and China could presumably start to use it in some capacity at any time,” said Mr. Erickson.

The U.S., which has expressed concern over freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, late last year flew two B-52 bombers near Chinese-built islands in the Spratlys. The speed of China’s island-building has alarmed many in the region who say Beijing could use the new islands to enforce its territorial claims as well as control over one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

U.S. military officials say China could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on such new islands and potentially use them to establish an air-defense identification zone.

China says the construction is mainly for civilian purposes.

Competing claimants to the Spratlys, including Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam, also maintain airstrips on the islands. U.S. officials, however, say the recent Chinese reclamation work and construction in the area of the Spratlys, which China calls the Nansha Islands, have been far more extensive.

For its part, China maintains that such construction is its right.

“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman  Hua Chinying.

Since Mr. Xi took office in late 2012, Beijing’s increasingly assertive activities in the South China Sea have severely strained relations with some of its neighbors.

A United Nations-backed tribunal recently said it would review a complaint from the Philippines over China’s territorial claims. Beijing has declined to participate in, or accept the authority of, the arbitration process.

—Vu Throng Khanh contributed to this article.

Write to Te-Ping Chen at te-ping.chen@wsj.com