Beijing’s southern Sansha City is planning to build a new series of infrastructures on a small archipelago in the South China Sea, according to a recent Chinese media report. The projects will include a “strategic service and logistics base,” as well as an “island city.”
While details of the project are unknown, the planned developments will reportedly be located in the Paracels Islands, specifically on its largest formation known as Woody Island and two smaller islets, Tree islet and Drummond islet.
China’s activities in the South China Sea have long been a point of contention in the region. Several countries contest sovereignty over the 3.5 million square miles of sea, one of the busiest waterways in Asia and indeed the entire world. The conflict has sparked clashes between China and its neighbors —such as the infamous standoff between China and the Philippines some years ago— and has also been a major flashpoint between PRC and the United States. Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to China’s building projects in the China Sea, criticizing “China’s illegal island-building in international waterways.” Referring to the massive fossil fuel reserves underneath the Sea’s waterbed, Pompeo accused Beijing of blocking energy development in the South China Sea through “coercive means.”
It has long been understood that the South China Sea issue could very likely bring about actual conflict between the U.S. and China. American leaders are very concerned about the long-term plans of China’s maritime activities in the region. And the administration has been rather overt in its threats against Chinese assets located in disputed areas in the Sea. Last week, two American B-52 strategic bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, flew over the South China Sea area for a second time in ten days. More recently, military sources announced that Marines from the 31st Expeditionary Unit led a series of mock small island assaults in Japan, in order to simulate capturing Chinese-controlled islands in the China Sea.
