MikeLigalig.com

By Joel Guinto
2 hours ago
 

Sand, cement, wood and steel are the latest tools in China's territorial arsenal as it seeks to literally reshape the South China Sea.

Chinese ships carrying construction materials regularly ply the waters near the disputed Spratly Islands, carrying out work that will see new islands rise from the sea, according to Philippine fishermen and officials in the area. China's efforts are reminiscent of Dubai's Palm resort-style land reclamation, they say.

"They are creating artificial islands that never existed since the creation of the world, like the ones in Dubai," said Eugenio Bito-onon, 58, mayor of a sparsely populated stretch of the Spratlys called Kalayaan, or "freedom" in Filipino. "The construction is massive and nonstop. That would lead to total control of the South China Sea," Bito-onon said May 28, citing fishermen.

Artificial islands could help China anchor its claims and potentially develop bases to control waters that contain some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. China, which says the area falls within its 1940s-era "nine-dash line" map, successfully assumed control of the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012 and has pressured Vietnam in the past month with an exploration oil rig in waters claimed by its neighbor.

"China's end game is to have de facto -- if not de jure -- control over adjacent waters, the Western Pacific," said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University. "The only question is if and how it will achieve it. China might need to consider more coercive measures to do so given the hardening resistance of other claimant states."

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