Asia-Pacific

China gaining ground with island-building in South China Sea

Satellite photos show the speed, scale and ambition China has exerted to assert ownership over South China Sea islands

A satellite image shows dredgers working at the northernmost reclamation site of Mischief Reef, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea, last Month. There is evidence that China is aggressively building artificial reef in the area. Photograph: Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/New York Times
A satellite image shows dredgers working at the northernmost reclamation site of Mischief Reef, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea, last Month. There is evidence that China is aggressively building artificial reef in the area. Photograph: Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/New York Times
Thu Apr 09 2015 - 16:32

The clusters of Chinese vessels busily dredge white sand and pump it on to partly submerged coral, aptly named Mischief Reef, transforming it into an island. Over a matter of weeks, satellite photographs show the island growing bigger, its few shacks on stilts replaced by buildings. What appears to be an amphibious warship, capable of holding 500 to 800 troops, patrols the reef's southern opening.

China has long asserted ownership of the archipelago in the South China Sea known as the Spratly Islands, also claimed by at least three other countries, including the Philippines, an US ally. But the series of detailed photographs taken of Mischief Reef shows the remarkable speed, scale and ambition of China's effort to literally gain ground in the dispute.

They show that since January, China has been dredging enormous amounts of sand from around the reef and using it to build up land mass – what military analysts in the Pentagon are calling “facts on the water” – hundreds of miles from the Chinese mainland.

A satellite image shows Chinese dredgers at Mischief Reef, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea, last Month. There is evidence that China is aggressively building artificial reef in the area. Photograph: Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/New York Times
A satellite image shows Chinese dredgers at Mischief Reef, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea, last Month. There is evidence that China is aggressively building artificial reef in the area. Photograph: Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/New York Times

The Chinese have clearly concluded that it is unlikely anyone will challenge them in an area believed rich in oil and gas and perhaps more important, strategically vital. Last week Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US. Pacific fleet, accused China of undertaking an enormous and unprecedented artificial land creation operation.

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"China is creating a great wall of sand with dredges and bulldozers," Adm Harris said in a speech in Canberra, Australia. Defence secretary Ash Carter, on his first trip to Asia, put the US concerns in more diplomatic language. In an interview to coincide with his visit, published on Wednesday in the Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's largest dailies, Mr Carter said China's actions "seriously increase tensions and reduce prospects for diplomatic solutions" in territory claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam, and indirectly by Taiwan.

The new satellite photographs, obtained and analysed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research group, certainly confirm the worries expressed by Mr Carter and Adm Harris. "China's building activities at Mischief Reef are the latest evidence that Beijing's land reclamation is widespread and systematic," said Mira Rapp-Hooper, director of centre's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, a website devoted to monitoring activity on the disputed territory.

New York Times