The White House on Wednesday revealed a measure of its intelligence on China's activities in the South China Sea, suggesting that Beijing is speeding up construction of military facilities in contested territories of the busy waterway.

Taiwanese defense officials on Tuesday confirmed the presence of advanced surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island, part of the Paracel island chain, in the South China Sea. 

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"There is every evidence every day that there has been an increase of militarization of one kind or another," US state secretary John Kerry told reporters, adding that China's reported deployment of missiles to the disputed island is a serious concern for the US government. 

"We've had these conversations with the Chinese," Kerry sa

id.  "I am confident that over the next days we will have further, very serious conversation on this."

"Red Banner"

Beijing said that it has had sea and air defense placements on the Paracel Islands for years, but the recent reports of their existence have escalated tensions in the region.

"China has the undisputed right to place military infrastructure on its territory to protect its national security and sovereignty," China's defense ministry said in a written commentary to the Russian international news agency RIA Novosti. "Chinese air defense systems have been on these islands for many years already."

China has controlled the Paracel island chain since 1974, but Beijing's authority over the area is being challenged by the governments of Vietnam and Taiwan.  The Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia are embroiled in disputes with China over their surrounding waters, as well.

Fox News recently reported on civilian satellite images which appear to show two batteries of Chinese HQ-9 "Red Banner" missile launchers and a radar system on the disputed island.  The HQ-9 is said to be capable of shooting down aircraft within a range of 200 kilometers.

Experts have said the deployment of such a lethal Chinese missile system on the Paracels could complicate further US attempts to assert its freedom of navigation and over-flight in the area. 

US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, said that China's deployment of the missiles in the contested island does not come as a surprise, but pointed out that it would contradict China's pledge not to militarize the region, according to Reuters.  

"Diplomatic Event"

"We will conduct more -- and more complex -- freedom of navigation as time goes on in the South China Sea," Harris told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday. "We have no intention of stopping."

Some analysts have argued that the missiles in the Paracels may not be about defense at all, but a message about how China intends to manage -- and bargain -- over diplomatic issues surrounding the South China Sea and Seoul's plans to allow US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems in South Korea. 

"China is under tremendous pressure right now with the conference in Sunnylands and the US-Korean discussion over the THAAD deployment," Alexander Huang of Taiwan's Tamkang University told Voice of America News.

Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, agrees, saying the missiles may be less about defense than they are about communicating a message to the US.

Graham told the New York Times the satellite images indicate that the HQ-9 missile batteries on Woody Island may not be operational at all because they appear to lack necessary supporting infrastructure. 

That, he said, suggests the likelihood that China's intent might not be to station the missiles on the island permanently, but to improve its negotiating position on larger issues surrounding Beijing's claims on the South China Sea.

"There may be a military element to this, but also a signaling element," Graham said. "China often combines an upping of the ante before a significant diplomatic event."

TagsUS-China relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Freedom of Navigation