China has rebuffed Canada and other nations, which are asking it to check its claims on sovereignty in the South China Sea, a move Philippine President Benigno Aquino says, should spark fear around the world.
"Does it engender fear? Yes, I think it should engender fear for the rest of the world," Aquino said in a published interview conducted at the presidential palace in Manila by local media.
Aquino said China's reclamation activities on reefs and islets in contested parts of the South China Sea, and other actions to assert sovereignty, threatened access to international shipping lanes and fishing grounds there.
He also warned that, while he did not believe China intended to engage in a military conflict over the territorial disputes with the Philippines and other Asian nations, that was a possibility.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including areas near the coasts of other Asian nations, using a line that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims.
China's Foreign Ministry rebuffed a statement on maritime disputes by the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers, state media reported after satellite imagery confirmed a Chinese runway being built on reclaimed land on a disputed South China Sea island.
"We hope relevant countries can respect the efforts made by countries in the region to maintain the region’s peace and stability and do more that is helpful to regional peace and stability," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.
The foreign ministers of Germany, Japan, Britain, the United States, Canada, France and Italy expressed concern for "any unilateral actions, such as large-scale land reclamation, which change the status quo and increase tensions" in the East and South China seas.
"We strongly oppose any attempt to assert territorial or maritime claims through the use of intimidation, coercion or force," their joint statement read.
The satellite images taken March 23 confirmed that China has begun building a 3,000-metre runway on the Spratly Islands, an archipelago claimed by at least three other countries.
Analysts had previously speculated China was building an airstrip, but photos released by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly on Friday supplied the first concrete evidence: a paved runway on the north-eastern side of Fiery Cross Reef on land that China began reclaiming from the sea in late 2014.
Other imagery showed that China is likely building a second runway on Subi Reef.
Defence analysts said the construction is part of a larger Chinese reclamation project on at least five islands in the South China Sea.
The Philippines last year said it believed China was building an airstrip on Johnson South Reef in the Spratlys, and other satellite images have shown China expanding an airstrip on Woody Island, north of the disputed Paracel Islands, which Vietnam claims.
China claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea.
A military clash between China and one or more Southeast Asian nations involved in territorial disputes in the South China Sea has a 50-50 chance of occurring in 2015, the Council on Foreign Relations said.
The Washington-based think tank rated the sea controversy as one of 10 top US conflict prevention priorities in the coming year.
The CFR’s Center for Preventive Action upgraded from low to moderate the likelihood of territorial and jurisdictional disputes in the South China Sea escalating into fighting.
The failure of Chinese and Southeast Asian leaders to resolve the disputes by diplomatic means could undermine international laws governing maritime disputes and encourage destabilizing arms buildups, it said.