Chinese Artificial Islands: Advantages and Vulnerbilities

By Shahzad Masood Roomi

This is the artificial island in South China Sea recently built by China as part of her land reclamation project. This Chinese project has sparked a heated debate in global strategic community. South China Sea is among the most volatile maritime strategic hot spots in Indian Ocean. This particular island is located in disputed territory of South China Sea and this is why there is so much debate going on about this Chinese military project. Recently, A US Navy P-8A flew over the island and captured some very detailed pictures proving that Chinese have put their construction work on the island in the next phase. A bitter exchange of words took place between P8-A crew and Chinese Navy while US Navy plane carried out reconnaissance mission revealing details of Chinese mysterious artificial military island. After the incident, Chinese official declared the US flight as an action threatening peace in South Asia Sea. But latest media reports suggest that this was not the last such events where Chinese disapproved the US spying on her island. Australian Navy is planning a 'freedom of navigation' mission to show its disapproval of Chinese project. Australia is a US ally in Asia-Pacific Pivot strategy announced by President Obama in 2010-11.

Detailed photograph taken by the US Navy P-8A shows construction work on Chinese artificial island.

Latest, reports suggest that China has put weapons on the island. After these reports, there is a broad consensus among global security experts, that tensions over the South China Sea are set to escalate even further. As Chinese have shown their dissatisfaction over US spying its artificial island, the US defense secretary has defended the US spy plane flights over Chinese island. "There should be no mistake in this, the United State will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows", said Ash Carter, US defense secretary.

Chinese military buildup has been among the most visible geopolitical trends in last 15 years. This military buildup is translation of growing Chinese economic strength. Latest reports suggest that IMF has approved Chinese Yuan as a next global reserve currency along with US Dollar, EU Euro and Japanese Yen. This economic and military rise of China is the most vivid proof of global shift of power from the west to east. But problem with such power shift is that they are seldom peaceful and considering the high stakes of both the US and China in South China Sea, many security experts around the world consider that a war between both these powers is inevitable. 

Chinese Navy and Air Force are adopting aggressive policy as Beijing is looking to expand is capability to project power away from mainland China. Recently, Russia and China concluded naval exercises in Mediterranean Sea sending clear signal to NATO about the emergence of multi-polar world order.

There is no doubt that artificial island is a major step forward in Chinese strategy to project maritime power in South China Sea. Some experts have declared the island a non-sinkable Chinese aircraft carrier which is going to pose serious challenge to the US and allied maritime vessels in the region. But is Chinese strategy to build artificial islands in South China Sea going to yield the strategic results as Beijing has envisioned them?

Analysis:   

This Chinese artificial island is not the only project of its kind in the region. Previously, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippine have carried out similar projects in their respective waters, but problem with the Chinese project is that it is located in disputed waters where number of regional countries have claims over these waters. It makes this artificial island base a dangerous proposition to begin with.

Apart from that there is a question of building a naval island and coping with its vulnerabilities due to modern ballistic missile threats.

China is following the US footsteps as far as its island maritime strategy is concerned. During and after the World War II, the US established naval bases and stations on islands across the world. The islands like Midway Atoll and Diego Garcia provide strategic footprint to the US Navy in Pacific and Indian Ocean.  Though these islands are invaluable assets for the projection of maritime power and provide operational freedom for US Navy away from its own sea shores as they extend the line of sight for the US Navy due to radar stations and observational posts established on these islands. But at the same time, these islands can very easily become the operational nightmare due to their natural geographic vulnerability in open seas.

There is already a debate is going on within the US national security council about rising precision strike capabilities of Chinese Navy and threat it poses to the US bases in Indian Ocean and the Pacific. In 2014, Carnes Lord and Andrew S Erickson, both professors at US Naval War College, penned “Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia-Pacific” which presented a case study about vulnerabilities of US naval basing in the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

“American seapower requires a robust constellation of bases to support global power projection. Given the rise of China and the emergence of the Asia-Pacific as the center of global economic growth and strategic contention, nowhere is American basing access more important than in this region. Yet manifold political and military challenges, stemming not least of which from rapidly-improving Chinese long-range precision strike capabilities, complicate the future of American access and security here.”, says the writers.

The advent of guided missile technology and advancements in ballistic missiles submarines in naval warfare after the World War II changed the entire complexion of forward bases on these islands and their security. In any war scenario, such islands would naturally become the first target of enemy naval fleets and respective aviation wing. Today, both the US and Chinese Navies operate ballistic missiles which can literally remove such advanced naval bases from the face of the planet along with everyone and everything on the islands. In this backdrop, it would be natural to ask if this artificial Chinese island is going to be a strategic asset to PLAN or its biggest vulnerability in case of actual conflict?   

American Intrigue in South China Sea

Shahzad Masood Roomi

The US Navy has been conducting surveillance operations in South China Sea to monitor PLAN's maritime capabilities. These operations came to fore more than a decade ago when, in April 2001, two J-8s of Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) intercepted a US Navy EP-3E ARIES-II Surveillance Spy plane some 110 Kilometers south of Hainan Island in South China Sea. During the interception, a collision occurred between the EP-3 and one of the J-8s causing the death of a PRC pilot, and the EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan.This led to a serious diplomatic deadlock between two global players. China detained 24 member crew of spy plane after the incident who were released later on after the US government issued a statement about the incident. This was beginning of a quiet battle between the two states which still rages in South China Sea. The latest incident in this war took place when on 28th August 2014, China’s military told the United States to end air and naval surveillance near its borders, saying it was damaging relations between the Pacific powers and could lead to “undesirable accidents”.

Now question is, why the US is constantly undertaking such challenging and provocative maritime spy ops so close to the mainland China? Answer lies in the geography of the island and the fact that Hainan is home of PLAN's concealed submarine base; Sanya.  Hainan is located with in China's 200 km Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), it is not located in international waters though Chinese claim their territory far beyond the 200 Km EEZ. Next, the base houses PLAN's nuclear arsenal carried by Type-094 nuclear submarine. This is something that provokes so much reaction from Beijing over any US operation around the island province. Type-094 SSBN (Jin Class) carries JL-2 SLBM. According to the 2012 Annual Report  presented to Congress on ''Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China'' presented by the Office of the American Secretary of Defense, JL-2 has a maximum range of 14,000 kilometers. Due to these reasons, spying on PLAN submarine forces becomes strategic imperative for the US Navy.

PLAN's Type-094 SSBN

JL-2 SLBM would be part of the PLAN nuclear arsenal in coming years

Apart from this, even from a regional perspective, Hainan base is of critical importance for the PLAN as it is located in close proximity the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands. These reef islands are also a source of contention between China and the US strategic ally in the region, Taiwan. Controlled by PRC, Paracel islands are also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. All these factors have turned Hainan and South China Sea in a strategic hotspot in global politics and also explains the American intrigue in South China Sea.

What would be outcome of this American intrigue and maritime surveillance operations is still to be seen but one thing is certain, it would be pleasant if Americans keep on ignoring the Chinese warnings.