Over the past few months, China has been quietly and rapidly building an island in disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam, helping Beijing maintain its dominance over one of the world’s most important waterways. China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, including parts that are also claimed by several Southeast Asian countries.
Satellite imagery dating back to November shows Chinese dredgers building a crescent-shaped reef on Antelope Reef in the Paracels, a group of islands and reefs where China, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims.
By April, the island’s shores had been shaped and wharves, a helipad and unpaved roads were visible. It was almost twice the size of New York’s Central Park and appeared to be still under construction.
Given its size and ongoing expansion, Antelope Reef is likely to become one of China’s largest military outposts in the region, analysts say. Such islands usually contain airstrips, radar, electronic warfare facilities and missile bunkers. These bases support China’s navy and air force, enabling them to operate far from mainland China. China’s coast guard and maritime militia, made up of thousands of civilian fishing boats that help assert Beijing’s presence in the waters, also use them.
Artificial island rapidly took shape
Analysts tracking China’s island-building activities were surprised to see the new construction as China already had several outposts in the disputed waters and had largely stopped large-scale construction of such artificial islands.
“The strategic rationale for this is not very clear,” said Harrison Pretat, deputy director and fellow of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The feeling was that they didn’t need anything else,” he said.
Between 2013 and 2017, China built or expanded more than 20 military outposts in the South China Sea that are capable of hosting troops. This included three large military bases in the Spratly Islands – a chain more than 900 miles from the Chinese mainland, but within 300 miles of the Philippine coast – and one in the Paracels. The island-building campaign, which was unprecedented in its scope and speed, drew international condemnation and damaged China’s relations with its Southeast Asian neighbors as well as the United States.
Mr Pretat said the latest construction could be a response to Vietnam, which over the past two years has reclaimed land and built military facilities on islands it controls in the Spratlys.
More importantly, perhaps, compared to his predecessors, President Trump appears to be less focused on curbing China’s militarization in the South China Sea. “I think that’s a big question: Did they think they could get away with it?” Mr. Pretat said.
Antelope Reef is now one of China’s largest islands in the region, similar in size to its largest outpost on Mischief Reef in the Spratlys.
Vietnam claims the entire Paracels, which have been under Beijing’s control since being seized by China in 1974. Hanoi has protested China’s construction at Antelope, calling it “completely illegal and invalid”.
But Beijing insists the Paracels are China’s “inherent territory.” Asked about construction at Antelope Reef last month, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said any construction was only intended to “improve living and working conditions on the islands and enhance the local economy.”
