WASHINGTON: China appears to have largely completed major construction of military infrastructure on artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea and can now deploy combat planes and other military hardware there at any time, a US think tank said on Monday.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), part of Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the work on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly Islands included naval, air, radar and defensive facilities.

The think tank cited satellite images taken this month, which its director, Greg Poling, said showed new radar antennas on Fiery Cross and Subi. “So look for deployments in the near future,” he said.

China has denied US charges that it is militarising the South China Sea, although last week Premier Li Keqiang said defence equipment had been placed on islands in the disputed waterway to maintain “freedom of navigation.”

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2017