Deployment of Missiles in South China Sea

China reported to have deployed surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea, say reports.Satellite images taken  by Fox News appear to show two batteries of eight missile launchers and a radar system on Woody or Yongxing Island in the Paracels. Taiwan confirmed the deployment.

But China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi denied and said the reports had been invented by the Western media.The presence of missiles would significantly increase tensions in the acrimonious South China Sea dispute.

Adm Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, said it would be “a militarisation of the South China Sea in ways” China’s President Xi Jinping had pledged not to do.