BEIJING: China has deployed surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea, Taiwan said Wednesday, as Beijing insisted it had a right to build “self-defense” systems in the strategic region.

Taiwan’s defense ministry confirmed the existence of the facility after Fox News reported that missile launchers had arrived on Woody Island, part of the Paracels chain, in the past week.

The report came as President Barack Obama called for “tangible steps” to reduce tensions in the region.

China has controlled all of the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, since the mid-1970s and the end of the Vietnam War.

But tensions in the sea — through which one-third of the world’s oil passes — have mounted in recent months since China transformed contested reefs in the Spratly islands further south into artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities.

Washington says the move threatens free passage in a strategically vital area and has sent warships to sail close to the disputed islands to assert freedom of navigation, raising fears of escalation.

Australian military aircraft also regularly overfly the area.

Fox News said Tuesday that images showed two batteries of eight missile launchers and a radar system had arrived on Woody Island, the Paracels’ main island.

“The defense ministry has learned of an air defense missile system deployed by the Chinese communists on Yongxing Island,” a Taiwan defense ministry spokesman told AFP.

The ministry would give no further detail on when it had become aware of the installation, saying only that it had known about it “for a while.”

After a meeting with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi described the reports as “an attempt by certain Western media to create news stories.”

He did not explicitly deny the deployment, but said the press should “turn your attention more to the lighthouses we have built on some of the islands and reefs in the South China Sea.”