Landgrab - Communist China establishes a military base 200 miles out in the South China Sea
- China wants to administer almost the entire South China Sea.
- The nations of southeast Asia are fighting over the rights to underwater oil and gas deposits.
China founded a new city on Tuesday more than 200 miles from the mainland, in a bid to cement control over 800,000 squares miles of the South China Sea.
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Sansha is based on Yongxing Dao, or Woody Island, a petite heart-shaped island barely a mile long. It is shorter than its airport runway, which is left jutting out to sea reports the UK Telegraph.
China's 658th city, as classified by the country's State Council, has a floating population of a few hundred fishermen, a post office, library, bank, supermarket, and hospital and not much else. A casino is planned to drum up tourism.
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But it will have a full 45 government officials to run the city, its own mayor, and a Communist party secretary, Fu Zhuang, who has spent his entire career in the People's Liberation Army, rising to become the deputy chief of the Air Defence Office of Hainan province.
It will also have a military garrison, responsible for "national defence mobilisation ... and carrying out military missions".
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From here, China expects to administer almost the entire South China Sea, including both the Paracel and Spratly island chains.
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That will pit it directly against Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, all of which also claim sovereignty over parts of the region. .
China only gained control of Woody Island in 1974 after a battle with Vietnam left 71 sailors dead and the founding of Sansha has already been vigorously condemned by the Philippines and Vietnam.
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In the Spratly Islands, Vietnam has stationed 600 soldiers and built a town with its own hotel, school and temple. Most recently, it approved six Buddhist monks to be abbots on various islets and reefs; islands with settled civilian populations raise the stakes for any military action. (UK Telegraph)
China is pushing deep into international waters. |
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