The runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 metres (10,000 feet)
long and is one of three China has been building for more than a year by
dredging sand up onto reefs and atolls in the Spratly archipelago.
Chinese military aircraft makes first public landing on disputed island(Reuters)
A Chinese military aircraft has landed at a new airport on an island China has built in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Monday, in the first public report on a move that raises the prospect of China basing warplanes there.
The United States
has criticised China's construction of artificial islands in the South
China Sea and worries that it plans to use them for military purposes,
even though China says it has no hostile intent.
The
runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) long and
is one of three China has been building for more than a year by dredging
sand up onto reefs and atolls in the Spratly archipelago.
Civilian flights began test runs there in January.
In
a front-page story, the official People's Liberation Army Daily said a
military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea on Sunday received
an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three
seriously ill workers.
They were then taken in the
transport aircraft back to Hainan island for treatment, it said,
showing a picture of the aircraft on the ground in Hainan.
It
was the first time China's military had publicly admitted landing an
aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef, the influential Global Times tabloid said.
It
cited an military expert as saying the flight showed the airfield was
up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the
event of war.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said such rescue missions were part of the military's "fine tradition" and that it was "not at all surprising" they had done this on China's own territory.
The
runways would be long enough to handle long-range bombers and transport
aircraft as well as China's best jet fighters, giving it a presence
deep in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia that it has lacked until
now.
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.
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