Cold War Redux: China Installs Weapons on All Artificial Islands in Contested Waters

The second — 21st century version — Cold War has officially started, courtesy of China:

New satellite images indicate China has installed weapons on all 7 artificial islands it built in contested waters https://t.co/H40t8xywAV pic.twitter.com/Y9pU0GgaJv

— CNN International (@cnni) December 15, 2016

CNN explains:

The images, released by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, show anti-aircraft guns plus other weapons systems that would guard against cruise missiles sitting in hexagonal structures on the islands.

China has already built military-length airstrips on three of these artificial islands, previous analysis by the AMTI, part of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has shown.

According to China, the weapons are purely meant for self-defense. Sadly for the red Chinese, nobody’s willing to accept that explanation. China can defend itself already. The only reason why Beijing would install weapons on all seven artificial islands is that it wants to become more aggressive in the region — if not directly by the use of military force, than at least by intimidation and bullying (a strategy frequently used by China’s main ally, Russia).