China to build station on disputed reef

Structure on South China Sea shoal likely to renew concerns

BEIJING: China plans to build the first permanent structure on a South China Sea shoal at the heart of a territorial dispute with the Philippines, in a move likely to renew concerns.

The top official in Sansha City that has administered China’s island claims since 2012 was quoted by the official Hainan Daily newspaper as saying that preparations were underway to build an environmental monitoring station on Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines.

The preparatory work on the stations and others on five other islands in the strategically vital waterway was among the government’s top priorities for 2017, Sansha Communist Party secretary Xiao Jie was quoted as saying in an interview published in the paper’s Monday edition seen online yesterday in Beijing. No other details were reported.

Beijing seized tiny, uninhabited Scarborough in 2012 after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels.

Taiwan also includes the island within its South China Sea claims that largely overlap with those of China.

The other stations mentioned by Xiao would be situated on features in the Paracel island group that China has controlled since seizing parts of it away from Vietnam in 1974.

China’s construction and land reclamation work in the South China Sea have drawn strong criticism from the US and others, who accuse Beijing of further militarising the region and alter ing geography to bolster its claims.

China says the seven manmade islands in the disputed Spratly group, which it has equipped with airstrips and military installations, are mainly for civilian purposes and to boost safety for fishing and maritime trade.

Prior to the announcement, South China Sea tensions had eased somewhat since Beijing erupted in fury last year after a Haguebased arbitration tribunal ruled on a case filed by the Philippines.

The verdict invalidated China’s sweeping territorial claims, determining that China violated the rights of Filipinos to fish at Scarborough Shoal.

China has since allowed Filipino fishermen to return to the shoal following Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s calls for closer ties between the countries but it does not recognise the tribunal’s ruling as valid and insists it has historical claims to almost the entire South China Sea, through which an estimated US$5 trillion ( RM22 trillion) in global trade passes each year.

US diplomats have said privately that reclamation work on the shoal would be seen as crossing a red line because of its proximity to the main Philippine islands and the threat it could pose to US and Filipino military assets.

The topic is likely to be high on the agenda when secretary of state Rex Tillerson visits Beijing for talks with top officials this weekend. — AP