Intention to deal with the US when China illegally placed radar in Truong Sa

`Beijing needs to take measures to counter Washington’s gray zone tactics, making the US realize that China is not passively awaiting their Indo-Pacific strategy, but is a key member

The above article accuses the US of `creating a gray zone` by establishing a `mini-NATO` alliance in the Pacific with the participation of India, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

The author of the article believes that superiority in the communications front may be the most effective way to defeat the US when a conflict breaks out in the East Sea, when Chinese entities illegally build land in the Truong Sa archipelago.

Western experts believe that this article partly reveals China’s intentions when arranging a large-scale communications network and surveillance radar on illegal artificial islands in Truong Sa.

Chinese sensor cluster illegally deployed on Fiery Cross Reef in Vietnam’s Truong Sa archipelago.

China illegally occupied and reclaimed 7 rocks in Vietnam’s Truong Sa archipelago into artificial islands in the period 2013-2017, militarizing them into sea outposts when building runways and arranging many systems.

Vietnam has sufficient evidence and legal basis to assert sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos, in accordance with international law, and has repeatedly asked China to stop illegal actions.

Michael Dahm, a former US naval intelligence officer and researcher at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said that China’s main purpose in building artificial islands is to gain superiority.

Collin Koh, an expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that Chinese outposts illegally built in Truong Sa could be a factor that helps increase the strength of the Chinese military many times over,

`In wartime, they can be points providing intelligence, reconnaissance and reconnaissance (ISR) data, allowing the Chinese military to expand its offensive capabilities beyond the East Sea, especially against

`The Chinese military can use outposts in Truong Sa to detect and prevent US forces from that direction, or launch an attack campaign to flank the island of Taiwan from the south, including the Bashi Strait,

7 entities illegally occupied and renovated by China in Truong Sa.

Expert Dahm believes that the KJ-500 early warning aircraft and some unmanned aerial vehicles can be turned into aerial communication relay stations between artificial islands, Hainan Island and the mainland in an emergency.

`In the information age, the Chinese military believes that success in combat will be realized by communications superiority in the combat space,` Dahm said.

China has illegally built 27 large dome-shaped structures on artificial islands in the Spratlys to provide sea and sky surveillance capabilities, of which 7 systems are located at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs.

An article in the magazine Merchants and Warships said that China’s ISR system in Truong Sa is enough to disrupt the US military’s communications network.

However, Chinese experts also admit that these artificial islands are very vulnerable to direct attacks, due to their location being too far from the mainland and having no real defense capabilities.

Zhou claimed that China has turned artificial islands in the Spratlys into its most modern intelligence, reconnaissance and reconnaissance facilities and that the US military `will pay a very high price` if it attacks them.

`The US can deploy aircraft carrier battle groups, strategic bombers or even submarines carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles to destroy the entire artificial island chain, but the consequences will be very serious. China

Mischief Reef was illegally renovated and militarized by China.

Antony Wong Tong, a military expert in Macau, said that the article in this magazine refers to US bases in the Diego Garcia archipelago in the Indian Ocean and Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

An anonymous source in Beijing said the Chinese leadership understands that `a war to the death` will occur if the two sides do not de-escalate the East Sea.

Merchants and Warships said US military aircraft conducted 3,000 missions in the East Sea in the first 6 months of 2020, along with hundreds of operations by naval ships.

The Pentagon in late October denied rumors that the US was planning to attack artificial islands built by China in the region, after a series of high-level dialogues focused on crisis management.