Tensions between China and the United States escalated sharply yesterday over China’s deployment of an advanced surface-to-air missile system to an island in the South China Sea that it controls.

In an unusually personal attack, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the deployment of a China-made HQ-9 missile battery on Woody Island in the Paracel chain was a sign of increasing militarisation that contradicted a public assurance from China President Xi Jinping when he visited the White House last September.

… Ms Lee Ying Hui, a research analyst at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that while the threat of deliberate military confrontation remains low, the likelihood of unexpected military encounters and confrontations has increased with the greater militarisation in the region. “The risk of tactical miscalculations leading to fatal incidents has increased significantly,” she told TODAY.