PRC may build artifisial island in South China Sea

[Agoraphobic]

With no one willing to allow her ships to berth in territories to expand her reach, PRC plans to build artificial islands for this purpose. I suppose it is the only solution for PRC. Wonder how the countries in these areas will react to them. No one in the region will be able to contest her though.

Cheers!

http://thediplomat.com/2014/06/china-may-build-artificial-island-in-south-china-sea/

China May Build ‘Artificial Island’ in South China Sea
The island would be used as a military base to enforce a South China Sea air-defense identification zone.

By Zachary Keck

June 07, 2014

China is considering plans to build an artificial island in the South China Sea to use as a military base from which to project power, according to the South China Morning Post.
According to the report, which cited prominent Chinese scholars and a navy expert, the artificial island would be constructed on the Fiery Cross Reef, where China already maintains some installations. The reef is part of the Spratly Islands and is disputed by the Philippines and Vietnam.
“China is looking to expand its biggest installation in the Spratly Islands into a fully formed artificial island, complete with airstrip and sea port, to better project its military strength in the South China Sea,” the report said.
The South China Morning Post report follows similar ones in some of China’s press late last month that said plans had been drawn up on constructing an artificial island on the Fiery Cross Reef. Those reports said that the project would cost $5 billion and take ten years, and would ultimately produce a five-square-kilometer military base. The reports said that the strategic value of the base would “be equivalent to that for building an aircraft carrier.”
“The artificial island at Fiery Cross Reef will be an unreplaceable military base with great strategic significance due to its location and size. Such a base will realize the value of the South China Sea for China and ensure China’s status in South East Asia,” the Chinese-language reports said, according to Filipino media. The Filipino media noted that the base would fall within the Philippines 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.
Such a base would greatly enhance China’s ability to project offensive power in the disputed South China Sea.
The South China Sea Morning Post’s sources—which included Jin Canrong, a well-known professor of international relations at Renmin University—said that the artificial island would most likely be used in part to enforce a future Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea. China caused fierce backlash throughout the region last year when it established an ADIZ in the East China Sea, which overlapped with South Korea, Japan and Taiwan’s existing ones.
At the time the East China Sea ADIZ was first announced, Chinese officials said that future ones would be established when conditions warranted them. The U.S. has since repeatedly warned China explicitly against establishing a South China Sea ADIZ.
Tensions have been especially high in the South China Sea in recent months. Most notably, Vietnam and China have repeatedly clashed over Beijing placing an oil rig in disputed wars. Meanwhile, the Philippines has been accusing China of reclamation of the Johnson South Reef, another one of the Spratly Islands. Manila has also raised concerns about China activities around the Gavin Reef (Gaven Reef) and Calderon Reef (Cuarteron Reef), which Philippine officials said were also consistent with reclamation.
In the SCMP report, Jin, the Renmin University Professor, said that decision on whether to proceed with building the artificial island on the Fiery Cross Reef would depend on progress on reclamation at Johnson South Reef.
“It’s a very complicated oceanic engineering project, so we need to learn from the experience” on Johnson South, Jin said, SCMP reported.

 

[zhihau]

we should talk to the Indons and lease the Riau Islands for a century or two...

 

[chuckyworld]

The author are anti China and love bashing china, he and JR Holmes has the same views, you can read his new on the Diplomat ( which is base in Japan ) SCMP are anti China news too
http://thediplomat.com/

To Lead In Asia, Japan Must Take China to Court
Acknowledging the Senkaku dispute and appealing to international law would benefit both Japan and ASEAN.
By Zachary Keck

 

[frenchbriefs]

thats good,can ask china to build a artificial singapore too to house all our talents and workers?

 

[laksaboy]

The author are anti China and love bashing china, he and JR Holmes has the same views, you can read his new on the Diplomat ( which is base in Japan ) SCMP are anti China news too
http://thediplomat.com/

To Lead In Asia, Japan Must Take China to Court
Acknowledging the Senkaku dispute and appealing to international law would benefit both Japan and ASEAN.
By Zachary Keck

There is nothing to be pro or anti... at the end of the day it is just a geopolitical prick-waving contest between China and the USA (and its allies in Asia).

 

[steffychun]

Changi Naval Base is finished

 

[aerobwala]

Well done China

South China Sea: China's Unprecedented Spratlys Building Program

Subi Reef looks next in line for an airstrip, as building and reclamation continue with unprecedented speed.

By Victor Robert Lee, April 25, 2015

High-resolution satellite images from April 17, 2015 reveal that in the space of ten weeks China has built an island on top of Subi Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands group. The dimensions and shape of the land fill, which is still underway, are compatible with a potential airstrip 3,300 meters long, similar to the prospective length of the runway currently being paved on Fiery Cross, the site of another installation being built by China on a former reef in the Spratlys.

Military analysts have observed that a runway 3,300 meters long could support virtually all types of combat and supply aircraft in China’s navy and air force.

As recently as February 6, 2015, only two small sites of dredging and land fill activity were detectable at Subi Reef, part of a maritime region that is claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan, as well as China. As of April 17, 2015, the land fill of Subi measured 2.27 square kilometers in area, on a par with the rapidly manufactured island at Fiery Cross Reef, recently assessed as 2.65 square kilometers in area.

A notable difference between China’s buildup at Fiery Cross versus Subi is that Fiery Cross has a sizable new port as well as a runway/taxiway under construction. No such navy-caliber port facility is seen in the new images of Subi; however, a channel on the south rim of the reef is being expanded, and the near-complete enclosure formed by the natural reef provides a protective harbor in its own right. In addition, extensive ongoing land fill at the southern extremity of Subi could be purposed for marine docks.

Disputed Mischief Reef in the Spratlys, also the site of rapid land reclamation by China, has been filled in with sand and coral cuttings to an area of approximately 2.42 square kilometers as of April 13, 2015, from virtually no above-water terrain as of a few months ago. Satellite imagery shows a minimum of 23 dredgers operating at Mischief on April 13, along with at least two dozen other large construction-related vessels within the lagoon formed by the circular reef. In that day’s satellite image, 28 concrete transport/mixing trucks can be seen, in addition to dozens of other large trucks and dozens of backhoes.

China is expanding its land fill across the northern rim of Mischief Reef as well, along a relatively straight portion of the submerged reef with dimensions that could support a landing strip longer than 3,000 meters. Imagery of the southwest rim of Mischief shows the complete filling-in of a large sector of reef in a mere eight weeks.

Subi, Mischief and Fiery Cross reefs are three of at least seven reefs in the Spratly Islands that have been filled in by China and are being outfitted for purposes that are most likely military in nature.

The speed, scale, intensity and remoteness of China’s ongoing manufacture of land and infrastructure within the South China Sea have few or no parallels in history outside of wartime. The frenzy of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s building program in the Spratlys, a thousand kilometers from China’s shoreline, is a demonstration of its territorial intentions, as well as a show of the current government’s competency in swiftly executing massive projects to back up its ambitions. The result will be an enlarged international footprint for China’s military, submerging the territorial claims of weaker nations.

[Subi Reef is known as Zamora in Filipino, Đá Xu Bi in Vietnamese, and Zhubi Jiao in Chinese. Fiery Cross Reef is known as Kagitingan in Filipino, Đá Chữ Thập in Vietnamese, and Yongshu Jiao in Chinese. Mischief Reef is known as Panganiban in Filipino, Đá Vành Khăn in Vietnamese and Meiji Jiao in Chinese.]

Victor Robert Lee reports from the Asia-Pacific region and is the author of the espionage novel Performance Anomalies.

 

[Equalisation]

Will there be beach bars and outlets selling beer and also outdoor massages ?

 

[aerobwala]

They should add few more little islands at Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

 

[tanwahtiu]

glory to China and the Chinese, the once might nation of the world, and are warlords.

To take back 150 years (1700-1945) of lost times where they were bashed by no other than the evil British racist bastards drugging China Chinese and Singapore and Borneo Chinese with opium to expand their British Empire.

This time Chinese will rule the waves and air and expand the Chinese Empire never seen before by the evil British Empire (WEIS - Wales, English, Irish, Scot) in this 21st and 22nd century.

History must not be repeated to allow these WEIS to destroy China and Chinese again, enough said.

 

[eatshitndie]

it's inflammatory foolhardiness to build an oil and gas hub right next to a "forest" city.

 

[laksaboy]

it's inflammatory foolhardiness to build an oil and gas hub right next to a "forest" city.

The only forest city I know is between Cecilia Cheung's legs.

 

[eatshitndie]

The only forest city I know is between Cecilia Cheung's legs.

that jungle is the world's 6.9th natural wonder, after the amazon forest.

 

[Leongsam]

For once the Chinks are smarter than the rest of us. They know full well that Global Warming and rising sea levels are a myth.

They fake everything else so a couple of fake Islands will add to their expanding fake repertoire.

 

[Hans168]

we should talk to the Indons and lease the Riau Islands for a century or two...

done before w Batam............for 10 bln Suharto was agreeable but their citizens vetored

 

[Hans168]

The only forest city I know is between Cecilia Cheung's legs.

I thot it was thick jungle...???

 

[canonfairy]

why build only 1? the ocean is so big, they should build 100. the other countries in order not to lose out can also start building theirs. soon the entire Spratlys will become a new archipelago of the new century, very vibrant with a mix of military, integrated, beach front resorts, imagine sun and surf, nudists sunbathing, sipping tequila while enjoying the sights of rival aircraft carriers test firing missiles, hovering over the sky at night lighting up like fireworks, what a wonderous sight to behold

 

[Hans168]

Mr Eleven that is the way to go.... throw money at your enemies... none can match incl USA the lame duck making lots of noise

 

[glockman]

At the rate they are going, Sinkapore will really be in China.