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CHINA - HONG KONG. China launched a series of ballistic missiles into the South China Sea this week, according to United States defense officials, part of a flurry of military exercises extending thousands of miles along the country's coastline, as tensions with Washington over the disputed waterway continue to escalate.
Beijing claims almost all of the vast South China Sea as its sovereign territory and has stepped-up efforts to assert its dominance over the resource-rich waters in recent years, transforming a string of obscure reefs and atolls into heavily fortified man-made islands and increasing its naval activity in the region.
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China's territorial ambitions are contested by at least five other countries, and have been rejected outright by Washington which has declared Beijing's claims to be illegal under international law.
A US defense official told CNN that the Chinese military launched four medium-range missiles from mainland China on Wednesday. The missiles impacted in the northern reaches of the South China Sea between Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in China, the official said.
In a statement Thursday, the Pentagon described the drills as the latest in a long string of Chinese actions intended to "assert unlawful maritime claims" that disadvantage neighboring countries. The comments follow the announcement Wednesday that the US government will impose sanctions on dozens of Chinese companies for assisting Beijing in the development and militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea.
'Neither confirm nor deny'
Senior Col. Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, said on Thursday that China had carried out drills in waters and airspace between Qingdao in northeastern China and the disputed Spratly islands -- known as Nansha in China -- in the South China Sea, but did not mention the missiles outright.
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According to Wu, the drills "did not target any country."
Though China's Defense Ministry has not confirmed the missile tests, China's government controlled media made several detailed references to the launches, citing reports in overseas media.
Those reports said the missiles involved were DF-21D and DF-26 missiles, both of which have been touted in Chinese propaganda as highly accurate and able to hit ships moving at sea.
"China's DF-26 and DF-21D are the world's first ballistic missiles capable of targeting large and medium-sized vessels, earning them the title of 'aircraft carrier killers,'" the state-run Global Times said on Thursday, citing military observers.
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A separate editorial in the same outlet acknowledged speculation around the launch of the DF-21D and DF-26 missiles, saying only that the "Chinese side has neither confirmed nor denied it."
The editorial added that China "must increase its actions in the waters accordingly to suppress US arrogance and reinforce the US understanding that China does not fear a war."
Home to vital international shipping lanes, the South China Sea is widely deemed as a potential flashpoint for a military conflict between the US and China.
