China rejects protests over plane landing on disputed artificial island

China has rejected a protest from Vietnam after one of its planes landed on an artificial island in a disputed area of the South China Sea. Beijing insisted the the test flight to the Fiery Cross reef in the Spratly islands was civilian in nature, adding that the “relevant activity falls completely within China’s sovereignty”. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the flight was to test whether the airfield met the standards for civil aviation. “China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side,” she said, referring to the islands by their Chinese name.

Vietnam resolutely protests China’s above-mentioned action, asking China to immediately end while not repeating similar move

Vietnam foreign ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh

China has asserted its claim to almost all of the South China Sea by rapidly building artificial islands including airstrips said to be capable of hosting military jets. It began work in 2014 on a 3,000m (10,000ft) runway on Fiery Cross reef about 1,000km (620 miles) from China’s island province of Hainan. But Hanoi earlier strongly protested at the flight, labelling it a violation of sovereignty which “influences peace and stability in the South China Sea”. The US also voiced its concerns, saying  there was “a pressing need for claimants to publicly commit to a reciprocal halt to further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarisation of disputed features”.

We encourage all claimants to actively reduce tensions from unilateral actions that undermine regional stability, and taking steps to create space for meaningful diplomatic solutions to emerge

Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a spokeswoman for the US State Department

spratly Asia-Pacific