China’s Island Factory

Since 2012, China’s Communist Party has regarded the South China Sea as a “core national interest” – a list that has also included Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. Using its large cash reserve, labor and skills, China is constructing new islands on at least five submerged reefs in the South China Sea to support its territorial claims, reports Rupert Wingfield-Hayes for BBC News. The Philippines Navy and BBC News have documented the massive reclamation work. “Millions of tonnes of rock and sand have been dredged up from the sea floor and pumped into the reef to form new land,” he writes, suggesting an air base may also be part of the plans. “Other countries that claim large chunks of the South China Sea – Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia – all control real islands.” China also takes steps to defend the new islands, with sentries firing on the vessel used by the BBC journalist. The report describes the patriotic zeal of tiny military outposts and villages on remote islands maintained by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and China, all part of the effort to establish claims. – YaleGlobal