Territorial tensions in the South China Sea saw a new development this week: Beijing appears to have installed radar on the Spratly Islands.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies revealed in a Tuesday report that satellite imagery from this year showed a "high-frequency radar installation" on Cuarteron Reef that could "significantly bolster China’s ability to monitor surface and air traffic across the southern portion of the South China Sea."
The newly-built radar facilities come not long after Beijing installed surface-to-air missiles on the Paracel Islands, and continues to build runways and other infrastructure in the area. All of this on top of islands that were artificially created to being with.
CSIS wrote that the sum total of the construction suggests "a long-term anti-access strategy by China — one that would see it establish effective control over the sea and airspace throughout the South China Sea,"
according to The Wall Street Journal.
The area in question has long been disputed, and U.S. officials have said that Beijing is trying to control the area for both economic trade as well as military purposes.
Questioned about the new report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying demurred on questions of radar, but repeated Beijing's well-trod claim that the artificial islands are "indisputably China’s territory."
Some U.S. officials said that the Chinese have repeatedly gone back on a pledge made by President Xi Jinping while visiting the White House last year that the country would not militarize the islands.
In reacting to the report, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said only that the U.S. was "going to continue to evaluate the situation in the South China Sea," and reiterated the stance that the territorial claims are still up in the air.
Bloomberg News reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday as part his three day visit to the West.
"With the countries trading barbs, expectations for the talks are low," wrote Bloomberg.