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| HQ-9 air defense system (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — When unveiling the Pentagon’s fiscal 2017 budget request, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter highlighted the challenge presented by China as one of “our most stressing competitors.”
“We're making all these investments that you see in our defense budget that are specifically oriented toward checking the development of the Chinese military,” Carter said Feb 2.
Two weeks later, China has now set up a pair of HQ-9 air defense systems on Woody Island, part of the Paracels chain of islands in the South China Sea. The move is the latest in a series of Chinese actions to assert dominance in the region, including rapid growth of a series of artificial platforms in the Spratley Islands, territory claimed by five other neighbors, including nearby Vietnam.
The weapons' placement also comes after the US has conducted a series of “freedom of navigation” exercises near the Spratleys, which officials have said explicitly are being done to prove to China that the territory remains in international waters.
Read the full story at DefenseNews