Developments in China-claimed reefs more visible

China began land reclamation on Subi in July 2014. While it appears that the first air strip is being laid at Fiery Cross Reef, IHS Jane’s has estimated that if reclamation at Subi continues it will also provide an adequate base for another air strip. Reports have emerged that the current facilities house up to 200 troops. (Photo courtesy of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative)

MANILA – China’s large infrastructures in their artificial islands and reclaimed reefs are now more visible from the Philippine’s Pag-asa Island view.

Before China’s massive reclamation activities, Zamora (Subi) reef was once only faintly visible with a bunker and a light house. Now, the reef appears to be a potential military base.

Residents of Kalayaan town in the Pag-asa Island group are now expressing more concerns over the rapid building of structures in Zamora reef, which is just about 12 nautical miles from the island.

“Aside from ships and buildings at Subi, China has completed construction of a long runway on their man-made island,” Kalayaan town Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. said, adding that developments in the nearby reef can be seen through their six-story watch tower.

Furthermore, China’s announcement that its massive land reclamation works in its reclaimed reefs will be completed in the ‘upcoming days’ is heightening the town’s worry.

Reports that China will be suspending its island-building activities did not appear as good news to the town after learning that the country’s move is in preparation for the typhoon season and not because it has yielded to calls of halt from the neighboring countries.

China asserts that its infrastructures which worried the public were actually built to aid environmental conservation, maritime search and rescue and scientific research, among other ‘lawful, reasonable and justified’ projects which they claimed were ‘civilian in nature.’

Bito-onon, however, found China’s statements hard to believe as he questions the need to double the length of the runway in Zamora reef. He fears that the country’s military presence in the reef may restrict travels between Kalaayan and Palawan.

Aside from visible developments in Zamora reef, infrastructures in Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) reef are also starting to be visible. The reef is well within the Kalayaan island group.

The Department of National Defense (DND), for their part, also doubt China’s announcement that its reclamation projects will soon be stopped.

“We have to validate the report. Beijing has not been transparent in all its actions. For us, they should not only stop but they should also dismantle [their artificial islands],” DND spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said.

“We need to counter all the lies behind China’s claims. We want all the Chinese to know that what their government is doing [in the disputed waters] is contrary to what has already been agreed by the international community several years ago,” he added.

With the reclamation activities still continuing, Malacañang vows to pursue its case filed in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). The court will start hearings on the case next month.