China has denied allegations that it is militarizing the South China Sea and has insisted that it needs to expand the military facilities in the disputed area to protect itself and its reefs.

On Sunday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said the military facilities are necessary to protect China and its reefs. Echoing President Xi Jinping's earlier statement to U.S. President Barack Obama in September, Liu said China is not militarizing the islands in question, according to a Bloomberg report cited by Time.

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Some islands in the South China Sea have become the source of tension in the region because of territorial disputes. China has been building airfields on its new artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, sparking protests from nearby Southeast Asian countries with competing claim on the islands. However, Beijing insists that it is just trying to protect its territory.

"Building and maintaining necessary military facilities, this is what is required for China's national defense and for the protection of those islands and reefs," Time quotes Liu's statement on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur during a news briefing. "One should never link such military facilities with efforts to militarize the islands and reefs and militarize the South China Sea."

Liu also said China is only upgrading the civilian facilities in the artificial islands for the benefit of fishermen, commercial vessels, and other vessels in need of help, CNBC adds.

In addition, the Chinese official accused the U.S. was testing its military power in the artificial islands by sending warships through the region. In October, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer cruised around one of the islands, and just this month, U.S. B-52 bombers flew near the area. Liu said the move went beyond the "freedom of navigation," the report relays.

Obama and other world leaders have already called for a halt to the land-reclamation activities in the region, but China has expressed its intention to upgrade the military facilities in the disputed area, the BBC reports.

Aside from China, other Southeast Asian countries claiming ownership over the disputed islands are the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

TagsUS china south china sea, Liu Zhenmin