China has significantly stepped up its land reclamation activities on a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, according to satellite images.
One image, reportedly taken on Monday, suggested that the surface area of Antelope Reef, once a mostly submerged feature in the Paracel Islands, had expanded substantially.
The picture, published on social media by Damien Symon, a researcher with global intelligence research network The Intel Lab, also showed more than 30 vessels, believed to be dredgers and construction support ships, within its lagoon.
It may be the most significant land reclamation project China has undertaken in the South China Sea since it officially announced a halt to such work more than 10 years ago.
The reef is about 400km (250 miles) from Sanya, a port on the southernmost tip of the Chinese island of Hainan, and about 1,000km from Da Nang on the Vietnamese coast.
It is also around 90km away from Woody Island, where China’s administrative hub for the South China Sea is situated.
China took full control of the Paracel Islands – known as Xisha in China and Hoang Sa in Vietnam – in 1974 after a naval battle with South Vietnam, which was in the final stages of its doomed war with its northern neighbour.
There has been no official confirmation that land reclamation work is taking place on the reef. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been asked for comment.
According to the London-based Open Source Centre, work started in early December when two dredging vessels – accompanied by several roll-on/roll-off vessels – were spotted at the reef.
Work appeared to accelerate in January, with up to 12 dredgers present by the middle of the month, a number that rose to 22 by early February, according to the centre.
Its report, published in mid-February, also said that prefabricated shelters had been placed on the reef and a secondary causeway was being built.
“Taken together, these developments suggest reclamation activity is intended to extend across the reef’s full length and will likely evolve into a multipurpose outpost to enhance China’s military presence in the region,” the non-profit organisation concluded.
China began massive land reclamation projects in the Spratly Islands in 2013, soon after the Philippines took a case to an international tribunal in The Hague to challenge Beijing’s extensive claims in the South China Sea.
In 2015, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that the island construction programme had finished.
The arbitration case was decided in Manila’s favour in 2016, but Beijing refused to accept the ruling and argued the tribunal did not have jurisdiction over such matters.
So far China has built seven artificial islands in the Spratlys, three of which are equipped with military facilities. Its claims in the area are disputed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Some of these countries, most notably Vietnam, are trying to bolster their hold on the features they control in the resource-rich South China Sea.
By March last year, Hanoi had tripled its outposts in the Spratly Islands to 12, with dredging and landfill reclaiming around 1,343 hectares (3,319 acres) of land compared with the 1,882 hectares China had reclaimed, according to US think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
In a report released in June, Beijing-based think tank the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative said piers, runways, temporary landing pads for helicopters and embankments could be seen on satellite images of some of the new outposts Vietnam had built in the Spratlys.
It warned that because most of these features were coastal, they could be used to be deployed with anti-ship artillery or missile systems. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
