Category: Philippines
World Affairs Brief, February 9, 2018 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.
Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com).
CHINA MILITARIZATION OF SOUTH CHINA SEA REEFS ALMOST COMPLETE
Trump is turning out to be all talk and no action when it comes to China’s aggressive policy of building military facilities on a series of coral reefs in territory claimed by the Philippines. All of the larger islands are already claimed and so to advance China’s “String of Pearls” policy of establishing naval and air bases surrounding Chinese waters, China has taken to expanding unwanted reefs and barely visible sea mounts in order to expand its military bases without directly taking land in use by others.
It’s an insidious and devious tactic that allows China maximum leverage without directly challenging existing land claims. While the Philippines do claim the area, they’ve never done anything with these heretofore “useless” mini-islands. In an in-depth report, complete with extensive photographs, the Inquirer.net documents that China has almost finished transforming seven reefs claimed by the Philippines in the Spratly archipelago into island fortresses, “in a bid to dominate the heavily disputed South China Sea.” I’ll summarize the main points, but encourage everyone to go to the article to see the pictures.