Beijing accused of building on unoccupied reefs in S China Sea

Bloomberg

China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, which they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory and potentially bolster its military presence in a region critical to global trade.
Fishing fleets that operate as de facto maritime militias under the control of authorities in Beijing have carried out construction activities at four features in the Spratly Islands over the past decade, according to officials with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified to discuss sensitive information. Some sand bars and other formations in the area expanded more than 10 times in size in recent years, they said.
They said similar activities have also taken place at Lankiam Cay, known as Panata Island in the Philippines, where a feature had been reinforced with a new perimeter wall over the course of just a couple of months last year. Other images they presented showed physical changes at both Whitsun Reef and Sandy Cay, where previously submerged features now sit permanently above the high-tide line.
While China has previously built out reefs, islands and land formations that it had long controlled — even establishing small outposts and runways in some cases — the latest images represent what the officials called the first known instances of a nation doing so on territory it doesn’t
already occupy. The officials warned that Beijing was seeking to advance a new status quo by building up the cays and reefs in the Spratly Islands, even though they said it was too early to know whether China would seek to militarise them.
Asked to respond to the claims, China’s Foreign Ministry in Beijing said: “The relevant report is purely made out of thin air.”
China asserts rights to more than 80% of the South China Sea based on a 1947 map showing vague markings that have since become known as the “nine-dash line.” It has previously said it has the sovereign right to build upon its own territory.
Tensions between China and other claimants in the South China Sea — the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei — have been rising for years as Beijing invested more in naval and coast guard ships to enforce its claims.
The Spratly Islands, historically tiny and uninhabited, have taken on greater geopolitical significance given they straddle one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and could have military
significance, particularly if tensions over Taiwan trigger a regional war.
Over the past decade, China has reclaimed thousands of acres of land on features it already controls in the Spratly Island chain and militarised them with ports, runways and other military infrastructure. That has prompted other nations in the region to step up defense spending and also undertake reclamation work. The US has repeatedly criticised China’s actions in the South China Sea, and sought to challenge its territorial claims with so-called freedom of navigation operations.