WASHINGTON (Bloomberg): China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, an unprecedented move they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory in a region critical to global trade.
While China has previously built out disputed reefs, islands and land formations in the area that it had long controlled - and militarised them with ports, runways and other infrastructure - the officials presented images of what they called the first known instances of a nation doing so on territory it doesn’t already occupy. They warned that Beijing’s latest construction activity indicates an attempt to advance a new status quo, even though it’s too early to know whether China would seek to militarise them.
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