U.S. State Department official says Chinese runways in Spratlys are designed for military aircraft

A Deputy Assistant Secretary from the U.S. State Department told reporters in Manila that runways China has built in the Spratly Archipelago are meant for military aircraft.

Fiery Cross Reef 2015
By United States Navy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“The runways they’ve built are designed to accommodate strategic bombers, not cargo planes for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” said Colin Willet from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.