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| China's reclamation work on Fiery Cross Reef/Island |
By Ankit Panda
Beijing will face an uphill struggle in getting other states with interests in the region to let it have its way.
In recent months, China has taken to building artificial islands in disputed regions of the South China Sea to bolster its territorial claims. In the Spratlys and Paracels, Beijing is warping the landscape by carrying out land reclamation activities. China’s reasons for pursuing its island-building activities have been varied, but overall, they have done little to assuage the concerns of observers in the region and the United States.
As The Diplomat reported earlier this month, China has cited a variety of reasons to undertake its “maintenance and construction work” on these island facilities. Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign minister, noted in early April that the activities (in the Spratlys at least) had the following goals:
[O]ptimizing their functions, improving the living and working conditions of personnel stationed there, better safeguarding territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, as well as better performing China’s international responsibility and obligation in maritime search and rescue, disaster prevention and mitigation, marine science and research, meteorological observation, environmental protection, navigation safety, fishery production service and other areas. (My colleague Shannon Tiezzi has a more detailed deconstruction of these remarks here.)
The list of reasons formally provided by Beijing range from the benevolent (disaster prevention) to the anodyne (metereological observation). The primary concern among China’s neighbors, particularly among South China Sea disputants including Vietnam and the Philippines, is that these islands and their corresponding facilities could be used to stage military operations in the region that would effectively prevent anyone but China from administering the disputed territories.
Read the full story at The Diplomat