By Shannon Tiezzi
China’s land reclamation projects could be a precursor to a final definition of the “nine dash line.”
Recently released satellite footage gathered by IHS Jane’s has revealed the massive extent of China’s land reclamation projects in the South China Sea. The images show that Beijing has created entirely new islands on a number of reef in the Spratlys, including Fiery Cross Reef, Gaven Reefs, Johnson South Reef, and Hughes Reef.
The Wall Street Journal collected the images and placed them next to satellite footage from early 2014 to make clear the extent of the construction projects. China’s isn’t just building piers and airstrips on existing land (as Taiwan is doing on Itu Aba, for example) – it is creating islands and then building on top of them. In one case, Fiery Cross Reef, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative estimates China expanded the size of the existing land more than tenfold, making the new island more than three times larger than Itu Aba (previously the largest of the Spratly Islands).
IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly’s Asia Pacific editor, James Hardy, told the Wall Street Journal that “this is a methodical, well-planned campaign to create a chain of air and sea capable fortresses across the center of the Spratly Islands chain.” The new facilities will presumably provide refueling and supply stations for Chinese naval and aerial patrols of the region – a crucial step if China plans to establish an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea, as many analysts believe it will.
Read the full story at The Diplomat