A US Admiral's warning against China's rapid construction of artificial island military bases has been slammed as dangerous and damaging to Australia's relationship with its biggest trade partner.
The Lowy Institute's East Asia program director, Merriden Varrall, criticised comments made by the commander of the US Pacific fleet, Admiral Harry Harris, as alarmist after he questioned China's intentions as it continued to built military bases across the region's major trade routes.
Considering China's pattern of provocation towards smaller countries in the region "it's no surprise that the scope and pace of building man-made islands raises serious questions about Chinese intentions", Admiral Harris told a dinner at the Australian War Memorial on Tuesday.
"This kind of posturing is at worst dangerous and at best impedes the progress we've made in improving communication with China," Dr Varrall said.
"There is a presumption that there is a grand strategy that results in China behaving badly and threatens the normative order of the region, but we don't know that," she said.
Dr Varrall said the artificial bases could be an anti-piracy measure to protect trade.
"We just don't know what it's for," she said. "China does itself no favours with its lack of transparency, but it's the responsibility of all sides to find a way to open the lines of communication."
But the professor of international security at the University of NSW, Alan Dupont, backed Admiral Harris, saying China was clearly militarising the disputed islands, and showed no sign of slowing construction.
"We've had more or less peaceful stability with China for the last 40 years. This threatens that very stability," he said.
Australia would need to launch a diplomatic response in conjunction with other south-east Asian countries.
"But if diplomacy fails we need to look at other options."
Professor Dupont stressed that a military response was not appropriate, instead flagging economic sanctions.
"I would only go to sanctions if things got a lot worse. We're a long way from that," he said.
"We need to work with our nearest neighbours to persuade China that it is not in their best interest to militarise South China Sea and there would be consequences in doing so," he said.
