By Karl MALAKUNAS
The Philippines accused China Wednesday of secretly preparing to build an artificial island on Scarborough Shoal, a tiny and remote outpost in a contested area of the South China Sea.
Doing so risks a military confrontation between China and the United States. Here are five key questions and answers about the shoal and why it is so important.
- What is it? -
A small ring of reefs that lie about 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the main Philippine island of Luzon and 1,000 kilometres from the nearest major Chinese landmass, Hainan island.
It is rich with marine life that fishermen from the Philippines, China and Vietnam have tapped for generations.
Although it is in the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), China and Taiwan also claim it falls within their sovereign territory, part of a broader territorial row across the South China Sea.
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