China admits building military facilities in South China Sea
China is building military facilities on islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of its national defence policy, a senior foreign official acknowledged Sunday.
"Those islands and reefs are far from China's mainland, it is necessary to maintain and build necessary military facilities," said Liu Zhenmin, China's deputy foreign minister for Asian affairs, after the East Asia Summit in Malaysia.
"But one should never link such military facilities with efforts to militarise the islands and reefs and to militarise the South China Sea," he said.
Liu said Beijing's reclamation efforts in the sea ended in June, but construction of facilities is continuing.
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