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This image with notations provided by ImageSat International N.V., Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, shows satellite images of Woody Island, the largest of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. A U.S. official confirmed that China has placed a surface-to-air missile system on Woody Island in the Paracel chain, but it is unclear whether this is a short-term deployment or something intended to be more long-lasting. (ImageSat International N.V. via AP)

It is hard to say that China’s President Xi Jinping isn’t consistent. Since he took office in 2013, President Xi has actively and aggressively asserted Chinese territorial claims, especially maritime ones. And while China’s construction of airfields on disputed islands in the South China Sea—over U.S. and Southeast Asian nations’ objections—was a step in the wrong direction, and the United States sailing a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of those islands poked China with a geopolitical stick, China’s latest move can only be viewed as escalation.

On Wednesday (Feb. 18), Taiwan’s defense ministry announced that it had first-hand confirmation that China had deployed surface-to-air missiles in the Paracel Islands, a South China Sea island chain southeast of Hainan Island, which is also claimed by Vietnam.

China claims most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, denoted by a “nine-dash line” that extends almost to the coasts of the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Those nations, along with Taiwan, have competing claims for some of the islands within the sea, which is believed to hold significant energy and mineral deposits.

Aside from possible oil, gas and mineral finds, at issue is freedom of navigation for commercial and military shipping. About half of the world’s oil passes through those waters, supplying China’s rival Japan, along with China itself, and a huge amount of commercial goods.

“We will deploy necessary national defense facilities on the islands. It is an exercise of self-preservation and defense, a right granted by international law to sovereign states. It does not impede freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea that all countries are entitled to under international law,” China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei said on Tuesday. Mr. Hong did not address the missile issue specifically.

Steven Schwankert is an award-winning writer and editor with 17 years of experience in Greater China, focusing on exploration, technology, media and culture. His book, Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine was published in 2013 by Hong Kong University Press. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, his work has been published in The Asian Wall Street Journal, The South China Morning Post, Billboard, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. It has also appeared on the web sites of The New York Times, The Washington Post, PCWorld and MacWorld. He is a former deputy Asia editor for The Hollywood Reporter, former editor of Computerworld Hong Kong and former managing editor of asia.internet.com.