Vietnam builds up defences in Spratly Islands 'to ensure it can strike Chinese facilities'

Vietnam has ramped up its defense capabilities around the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea over the last two years to counter China’s militarisation and belligerence in the territory that has heightened tensions with rival island nations Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei. Hanoi’s recent installations of the air and coastal defense systems in the Pacific waters is aimed at combatting China’s intimidation for its expansionist maritime claims and its military aggression off the Paracel and storm Island. A report released by Washington based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) revealed that the Southeastern Asian nation has advanced defense outposts across its bases in West Reef and Sin Cowe Island to tackle People's Liberation Army’s (PLA) superiority in the archipelago, and its disputed claims on 45 islands in its entirety, which provide rich oil and gas deposits. 

"The work began in 2019 and is concentrated on the roughly 26 acres of reclaimed land built between 2013 and 2016. The reclaimed area on the north side of Sin Cowe, vegetated in images from 2018, was cleared for the construction of new tunnels and coastal fortifications," the AMTI report stated. It added, that to combat China's military superiority, Vietnam initiated the construction of small radar systems across all of its 10 largest islets, including Pearson Reef and Namyit, that are "easy to deploy and conceal", additionally installing radome, housing unknown sensing or communications systems, as well as several administrative buildings.

"The coastal defence installations - concrete emplacements often connected to a bunker - are ubiquitous at Vietnam's larger outposts," the report said.

[PLA vessel sailing across the South China Sea. Credit: AP]

[Vietnam's Spratly Island in the South China Sea. Credit: Twitter/@duandang]

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"In the past two years, West Reef has seen significant new construction, including several coastal defense installations, administrative buildings, concrete pads and bunkers, and a large tower structure presumably for communications or signals intelligence. The northern and southern tips of the island also saw the construction of a tunnel network similar to those on other Vietnamese features, as well as the planting of vegetation," the report stated, as cited by ANI.

Interpreted 'right' to military activities

China, over the recent years, has hardened its military bases and enhanced military capabilities to exercise de facto control across the South China Sea, Spratly, and Parcel islands under its evolving maritime strategy. Additionally, the PLA has exclusively enhanced the kinetic weaponry for long-range precision-strike capabilities on island-reef bases, strengthened its tactical, operational, and strategic presence to combat the foreign forces from maneuvering across the nine-dash line, a 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial sea from the Paracel baseline to command an all-domain naval power. While according to the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Vietnamese vessels could legally navigate the contiguous zone around the Spratlys, recognized as international territorial waters, China claims 200 nm from the end of this territorial sea as its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and interprets to have “rights” to the military activities in the region. 

In its recent efforts, in order to make the archipelago “more resilient” against China, Hanoi has numbered up its military emplacements to “ensure it can strike Chinese facilities”, according to an AMTI report. “The coastal defense installations – concrete emplacements often connected to a bunker – are ubiquitous at Vietnam’s larger outposts,” the report stated. Stretching across 28.3 hectares (70 acres) of land at West Reef, the island country also erected signal towers and administrative buildings to come at par with Beijing's informationized warfare operational strategies. 

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