All eyes on Taiwan, America’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ China has once again raised the stakes in one of the world’s most fiercely contested waterways — this time, for the first time, on Donald Trump’s presidential watch. New satellite photos have revealed that China is building surface-to-air missile (SAM) facilities on Subi, Mischief, and Fiery Cross Reefs in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands. These are part of the network of artificial islands, or the Great Wall of Sand, that China has been building in the Spratlys since 2014. The construction project has now grown to more than 3,000 acres and includes airstrips and hardened structures for military aircraft, mobile anti-aircraft batteries, and radar units, and hardened sites for aircraft. In an NRO article in December, I predicted that the stage was being set for installing SAM batteries as the next step to militarizing the Spratlys — something China’s president, Xi Jinping, swore in 2015 would never happen. Now it’s coming to pass. All of it is part of China’s strategy of imposing its claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea — by force if necessary. The key question is, What can the Trump administration can do about it?

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445182/china-tests-trump-south-china-sea-taiwan-key