China appears to be taking new steps to build airfields on two reefs in a disputed area of the South China Sea on the eve of President Xi Jinping’s arrival in Washington for a state visit on 24 September.

Commercial satellite photos taken on 8 September for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) show that China is flattening, rolling and putting gravel down on an area the size of a military runway on Subi Reef, a once submerged shoal. The flattened area is about 60 metres wide and more than 2km long, but is expected to grow and be covered with asphalt next, say China experts who saw the photos.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/south-china-sea-xi-jinping-obama