A 3,000m airstrip that Beijing is building on a reef in disputed waters in the South China Sea is “nearly complete,” a US think tank said.
A satellite picture taken on Sunday showed that China was paving and marking the runway on Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑礁), and an apron and taxiway have been added, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said on its Web site.
Beijing’s project to build artificial islands and facilities on various reefs and outcrops in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) only became publicly known in recent months, but construction has since been rapid, raising tensions with both its neighbors — including Taiwan, which also claims the islands — and Washington. The US has weighed sending warships and surveillance aircraft within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) — the normal territorial zone around natural land — of the new artificial islands.
Photo: Reuters
A lake in the middle of Fiery Cross Reef has been filled in and it has a partially developed port with nine temporary loading piers, the center said.
Personnel could be seen walking around, while two helipads, up to 10 satellite communications antennas and one possible radar tower were also visible, the center added.
The US wants Beijing to halt construction and militarization, which “the Chinese show no indication of willingness to do,” Bonnie Glaser of CSIS said.
She said there would likely be a short-term lull in construction, as summer is typhoon season in the South China Sea, while Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is due to visit the US in September and “the Chinese are attaching priority to having a successful summit.”
However, she said activity would likely pick up again later.
The island is now 2.74km2 in size, the center said.
China has reclaimed land on seven different reefs totaling an estimated 12.8km2, it added.
At one of the sites, Johnson South Reef (Chigua Reef, 赤瓜礁), CSIS said Beijing has added a small port with two loading stations, two helipads on the reef and up to three satellite communications antennas.
It also had a “large multi-level military facility” with two possible radar towers being built, along with up to six security and surveillance towers, and four possible weapons installations.
Beijing claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, including areas close to the coasts of other littoral states, locking it into disputes with several neighbors, including the Philippines and Vietnam.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said on Tuesday that some of the land reclamation works in the Spratlys had been “completed recently as scheduled.”
“In the next stage, the Chinese side will start the building of facilities to meet relevant functional requirements,” she told reporters at a regular briefing.
They were mainly for civilian purposes, she said, but “necessary military defense requirements will also be fulfilled.”
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