WASHINGTON – The United States has called on China to clarify or adjust its controversial nine-dash boundary line in the South China Sea to conform to international law and insisted all maritime claims be derived from land features, Navy Admiral Samuel Locklear said.

Testifying before a House Armed Services

Committee on Wednesday, the head of the US Pacific Command said China’s attempts to unilaterally enforce its ambiguous sea claims have created uncertainty in the region.

“The international community would welcome China to clarify or adjust its nine-dash line claim and bring it into accordance with the international law of the sea, as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention,” he said.

In Manila, Australian Ambassador Bill Tweddell also expressed concern over China’s massive reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea.

China’s nine-dash boundary line covers almost the entire South China Sea and its claims overlap those of five other claimants – the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

China is executing a strategy that includes expanding outposts in contested areas through land reclamation, taking action to prevent other nations from establishing or maintaining outposts, exploring for natural resources in disputed waters and increasing its naval and air forces’ presence through exercises and patrols, Locklear said.

He said China’s aggressive land reclamation and construction projects at eight South China Sea military outposts included new buildings, more capable berthing space for ships and presumably an airfield on Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef, China’s largest reclamation project.

“Although land reclamation cannot change a submerged feature into a natural island that generates any legal entitlements to maritime zones, the completion of these projects will give China the ability for greater presence, increase dwell time for military and coast guard assets, and expand the areas covered by surveillance and area-denial systems,” he said.

Missile system

China could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on outposts it is building in the South China Sea that could be used to enforce an exclusion zone over the disputed territory, Locklear added.

“It allows them to exert basically greater influence over what’s now a contested area. Expanded land features down there also could eventually lead to the deployment of things such as long-range radars, military and advanced missile systems,” he said. “And it might be a platform if they ever wanted to establish an air defense zone.”

China drew condemnation from Japan and the US when it imposed an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), in which aircraft are supposed to identify themselves to Chinese authorities, above the East China Sea in late 2013.

The US responded by flying B-52 bombers through the zone in a show of force.

China has denied speculation that it plans to declare a new ADIZ in the South China Sea but its rapid reclamation work has alarmed other regional states with territorial claimants.

Examples of activities supporting China’s long-term strategy, he said, included attempts to block resupply missions to the small Philippine garrison at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal and bar Filipino and other fishermen from the disputed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

No country appears to desire military conflict in their territorial and maritime issues in the South China Sea, he said, and the claimants’ use of maritime law enforcement vessels to enforce their claims has largely kept these issues out of the military sphere.

However, an escalation due to a tactical miscalculation cannot be ruled out.

US Undersecretary of Defense Christine Wormuth, who also testified before the committee, said the Chinese government’s efforts to incrementally advance its South China Sea claims and block access to disputed fishing zones suggested a willingness to assert control over contested areas through coercion or the use of force. – With Pia Lee-Brago, Reuters