The development is likely to raise questions about whether and how the United States will respond, given its vows to take a tough line on China in the South China Sea. Trump's administration has called China's island building in the South China Sea illegal. A Pentagon spokesman said the United States remained committed to "non-militarization in the South China Sea" and urged all claimants to take actions consistent with international law. LONGER RANGEGreg Poling, a South China Sea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a December report that China apparently had installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, on all seven of the islands it has built in the South China Sea. "There is a tendency here in Washington to imagine that it's all about us, but we are not a claimant in the South China Sea," Freeman said.

Source: bd News24 February 22, 2017 08:26 UTC