As part of a broader project of land reclamation, beginning in November China started efforts to develop Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands. As of late November the reef had been built up to 3,000 meters long and between two and three hundred wide. This makes it large enough, in the assessment of analysts […]
Let’s assume 2015 is the year that Taiwan’s government normally friendly to Beijing starts resisting China instead. President Ma Ying-jeou’s Nationalist Party needs some anti-Communist credits for a shot at the presidency next year after disruptive mass protests and surprising local election losses in 2014. As if to kick off that campaign, Taiwan hoisted its […]
BEIJING: China on Monday hit back at the Philippines for criticizing Beijing’s ongoing reclamation project in the disputed South China Sea, saying that its actions were within the scope of Chinese sovereignty. China lays claim to almost all of the entire South China Sea, believed to be rich with minerals and oil-and-gas deposits. Brunei, Malaysia, […]
Reuters) – China on Monday hit back at the Philippines for criticizing Beijing’s ongoing reclamation project in the disputed South China Sea, saying that its actions were within the scope of Chinese sovereignty. China lays claim to almost all of the entire South China Sea, believed to be rich with minerals and oil-and-gas deposits. Brunei, […]
China’s reef reclamation and development projects in the disputed Spratly islands in the West Philippine Sea last year have progressed by leaps and bounds, and security officials expect them to be turned into man-made islets ready for occupation by Chinese military personnel and civilians. Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Pio Gregorio Catapang confirmed the […]
On January 8, the Philippine news outlet Rappler quoted an informed defense source as saying that China is likely to finish constructing its second airstrip in the South China Sea by the end of 2015. Separately, the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, General Gregorio Catapang Jr., also revealed that Beijing was about […]
The Maginot Line was a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles, and weapons installations that France constructed just before the border with Switzerland and the borders with Germany and Luxembourg during the 1930s. A mature network of military facilities in the Spratlys, including an expanded Fiery Cross presence, would effectively extend China’s ability to project power […]
Col. Jin Zirui of the Chinese Air Force Headquarters justified the ongoing construction of an airstrip at Fiery Cross Reef, one of the islands in the Spratlys that is being disputed by several Asian nations. The base under construction is intended as support for China’s radar system and gathering of intel, Asahi quoted Col. Jin […]
Satellite images analyzed by defense intelligence magazine IHS Jane’s show that China is reclaiming on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands a piece of land that bears the shape of a 3000-meter airfield and a harbor large enough to receive tankers and major warships. This is not the first, but the latest in a […]
In all of the struggles for territory in history, none has been quite as ambitious or unusual as a country trying to steal a whole ocean. But that is what China is actively doing in the ocean south of the mainland: the South China Sea. Bit by bit, it is establishing hegemony over this most […]