US RATCHETS UP PRESSURE ON CHINA

The U.S. military has begun actively — and more publicly — challenging China’s sovereignty claims over half a dozen artificial islands Beijing has been rapidly constructing through massive land reclamation.

On May 22, a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft — a militarized version of the Boeing 737 — flew from Clark Air Base in the Philippines over Mischief Reef and Fiery Cross Reef, previously submerged coral features that China occupied in the mid-1990s and late 1980s, and is now expanding into a landmass several times their original size. Recent satellite images show the construction of an airstrip, port facilities, cement factories and barracks, among other installations. U.S. defense officials also revealed that China had put two large artillery vehicles on one island.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article23267997.html#storylink=cpy