International press condemns China's territorial ambitions

Faced with China's massive construction of infrastructure on disputed islands and reefs in the East Sea to realize its ambition to monopolize the world's most important shipping lane, American and international press have published many articles exposing Beijing's plots and intentions.

China is illegally building massively on Gac Ma Island. Source: bbcimg.co.uk

With the title “Vietnam protests China’s construction of artificial islands in the East Sea,” the news sites Down Jones Newswires and iMarket Report on March 3 condemned China’s violation of international law.

Citing a statement by Deputy Spokesperson of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang, the article emphasized that China's illegal construction and expansion of construction on coral islands and changes in the area of ​​islands and reefs in Truong Sa are serious violations of Vietnam's sovereignty.

The article said Vietnam made the above reaction after recent satellite images showed that China's construction on disputed islands in the East Sea has expanded significantly, raising concerns among neighboring countries.

According to the article, after carefully studying the satellite images, experts concluded that the images provided clear evidence that China had built an artificial island covering an area of ​​nearly 75,000 square meters, including two piers, a cement factory and a helipad at Hughes Reef.

Satellite images also show that China has made significant progress in building similar infrastructure on two other islands, Johnson South Reef and Gaven Reef, where Beijing's claims overlap with those of its neighbors.

Previously, on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) news site, two authors, Jeremy Page from Beijing and Julian E. Barnes from Washington, published a joint article, “China massively expands construction of disputed islands in the East Sea,” in which they asserted that China’s massive construction of artificial islands in the East Sea to create a chain of fortresses that can control air and sea routes shows that Beijing has not given up its territorial ambitions.

According to WSJ, the speed and scale of island building in the East Sea shows that Beijing, although recently restrained in its words and avoided confrontations at sea and in the air, has not given up its ambition to project power in the region.

In response to these moves, US officials have repeatedly asked China to stop land reclamation and island building, but to no avail. During a visit to Beijing in early February 2015, Mr. Daniel Russel, US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific Affairs, raised US concerns about the above issues.

According to Mr. Russel, China's actions have caused instability and conflict with ASEAN members, when this country signed a non-binding agreement with ASEAN, committing to avoid provocative activities in the East Sea, such as settling on previously abandoned reefs and islands.

According to experts, China's facilities in Truong Sa are clearly for military purposes, while some of its recent actions in asserting territorial sovereignty have been carried out by coast guard and fisheries surveillance forces.

From having just a few small concrete bases, China now has full islands with helipads, runways, ports and facilities to support large forces of soldiers, said James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor of IHS Janes's Defence Weekly, a military magazine.

According to him, such infrastructure allows China to more strongly enforce its “nine-dash line” claim. China’s recent actions are a carefully planned campaign to create a chain of fortresses capable of controlling air and sea routes along the center of the Spratly Islands.

Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said the facilities could potentially be used to enforce China's sovereignty and jurisdictional claims and increase pressure on warships and coast guard vessels from other claimant countries.

According to Mr. Ian Storey, this shows that although Beijing recently said it was trying to cool down tensions in the East Sea, its policy on the so-called "cow tongue line" has basically remained unchanged.

However, according to the WSJ's conclusion, China's actions will not increase the legitimacy of its sovereignty claim in the East Sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which is: Only naturally formed land allows a country to claim maritime rights in neighboring waters!

Not only in the US, European newspapers (Germany's Song Duc page, the New Zurich newspaper, the Swiss Federal newspaper...) also published a series of articles denouncing China's massive construction of infrastructure on islands and reefs it has encroached and disputed in the East Sea, aiming to equate it with "actual ownership" of the islands it is creating.

These papers also concluded that international law only recognizes natural land areas, not artificial islands.

According to Vietnam+