By J. Michael Cole
According to an update on the PRC's Ministry of National Defense website (which cites a Chinese news source), China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) has apparently approved the formation and deployment of a military garrison in the recently created city of Sansha. If this is accurate, tensions in the South China Sea could rise yet again.
This latest move occurs after the State Council on June 21 turned Sansha into a prefecture-level city to administer more than 200 islets, sandbanks and reefs in the Spratly (Nansha), Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha), and the Xisha (Paracel) islands, sparking protests from the Philippines, which has overlapping claims with China in the area.
Beijing made the move as Vietnam, which is also involved in sovereignty disputes there, adopted a “law of the sea” that placed the Spratlys and Paracel islands under its jurisdiction. Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei are also involved in various territorial disputes over the island chains and surrounding waters.
In all, Sansha City will be responsible for 13 square kilometers of island area and 2 million square kilometers of water. Since 1959, China had only had a county-level administrative office to exercise sovereignty over the area.
Read the full story at The Diplomat