Path of war Manila BulletinManila Bulletin – 17 hours ago China foreign ministry came out lashing at us recently, saying our underlying goal bringing the issue before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is not to seek peaceful solution to the South China Sea (SCS). They said we are denying them their lawful rights through the so-called “interpretation or application of the UNCLOS.” Meantime, China proceeds with the reclamation at the Fiery Cross Reef, which is our “Kagitingan Reef,” constructing a large artificial island to allow an airstrip and seaport. David Archibald, a visiting fellow at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, views China’s aggression in the SCS as increasingly untenable. Writing for the American Thinker, Archibald says China’s island-building is frenetic. He said Jane’s has reported that at Fiery Cross Reef, there is a 3,000-meter-long runway. Once finished, Kagitingan will be the site of an airfield which can enforce an Air Defense Identification Zone over the southern end of China’s tongue-shaped 9-dash line. But why are other islands surrounding Kagitingan being dredged as well? He said the answer is provided by the base the Chinese built on Subi Reef. “It has a large, elevated radome, probably hosting a surface wave radar that can see around the curvature of the earth and good for up to 200 km.” He said each of the islands being built will have radar as well, along with headquarters for medium to long-range surface-to-air missiles as well as point defense surface-to-air missiles. He said the Chinese have embarked on a path intended to push the US to choose between confronting them militarily or abandoning their allies in the region, gambling that the US will choose the latter. He said the Chinese plan is to drive off the Filipinos, the Vietnamese, and the Malaysians off their bases in the SCS. “For a dark future to be avoided, the Chinese will have to be scraped off their artificial islands instead,” he said. “China has chosen the path to war,” Archibald said, proposing that the USS Zumwalt, armed with rounds of long-range projectiles, knock down the reclaimed site.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 09:54:53 +0000
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