China completes land reclamation - Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs

AFTER months of political tensions and maritime squabbles, China said Wednesday that it has finally completed its land reclamation activities in some areas of the resource-rich West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

During the regular press briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, its spokesman Hua Chunying revealed that “China’s construction on some stationed islands and reefs of the Nansha Islands has been completed recently as scheduled.”

The Chinese refer to Spratly Islands as Nansha Islands.

The next step would be for Beijing to start construction of facilities in the reclaimed islands “to meet relevant functional requirements.”

The facilities, she added, will mainly provide various civilian services, and will enable China “to better perform its international obligations and responsibilities in areas such as maritime search and rescue, disaster prevention and mitigation, marine scientific research, meteorological observation, ecological environment conservation, navigation safety as well as fishery production service.”