China Is Mass-Producing Islands To Extend Its Strategic Borders

[jimmy olsen]

Reckless, this is really going to increase the probability that some incident escalates out of control

http://io9.com/china-is-mass-producing-islands-to-extend-its-strategic-1632924448

China Is Mass-Producing Islands To Extend Its Strategic Borders

Mark Strauss
Today 7:40am

A dramatic change is taking place in the South China Sea where, since the beginning of this year, Beijing has created at least five new islands by dredging rock and sand and pumping it into reefs to form new land. By doing so, the Chinese are sending a blunt message to its neighbors and the U.S.: Keep out.

As a BBC News special report notes, China's island building is aimed at addressing what it views as a serious strategic deficit:

    There are many competing claims to territory in the South China Sea, but only China and Taiwan claim to own it all.

    Beijing's claim....is marked out on its own maps by the infamous "nine-dash line", which encompasses a huge tongue-shaped expanse stretching right up to the coasts of the Philippines and Vietnam and even Borneo.

    For decades China has done little to enforce its vague and sweeping claim. Now that is changing.

    In 2012 the Communist Party reclassified the South China Sea as a "core national interest", placing it alongside such sensitive issues as Taiwan and Tibet. It means China is prepared to fight to defend it.

    This is confirmed by Prof Yan Xuetong of Beijing's Tsinghua University— a pro-government academic well known for presenting the Communist Party's view to the outside world.

    China will fight, he says, if it feels its sovereignty in the South China Sea is under threat.

China's land grab at sea is primarily directed at its main strategic rival, the United States. As the U.S. Pacific Fleet continues to sail regularly through the South Chinese Sea, the Chinese Navy has become more assertive. Last December, it dispatched its new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to shadow the U.S. Navy cruiser, USS Cowpens. A Chinese amphibious assault ship approached and ordered it to leave the area. The commander of the Cowpens refused, saying he was sailing in "international waters."

At that point the U.S. Navy says the Chinese ship suddenly swung across the Cowpens' bow, just 1,600 feet ahead, forcing the cruiser to take evasive action.

According to the BBC, China appears to be preparing to build an airbase based on one of these new islands — Johnson South Reef (photo above) — with a concrete runway long enough for fighter jets to take off and land:

In 1823, US President James Monroe outlined what was later to become known as the "Monroe Doctrine."

    It identified the Western hemisphere as America's backyard, and nowhere more so than the Caribbean Sea. Old European colonial powers were told to keep out.

    Today China is doing something very similar in the East and South China seas.

    Everything inside the so-called "first island chain"— which stretches north in a curving line from the coast of Borneo, past Taiwan to southern Japan— is, in Beijing's opinion, China's backyard. Beijing's ambition is to dominate this sea-space and, ultimately, to deny access to the only other naval power in the world that can prevent China from doing so.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, which also has claims in the South China Sea and is rather alarmed by Beijing's actions, is taking the case to the United Nations. It wants a ruling based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which typically gives coastal states an exclusive economic zone up to 200 nautical miles from their coastline. But China has already announced that it will not be bound by any UN rulings.

[Phillip V]

Yet another reason USA needs more STEM graduates to build American islands.

[Valmy]

In 1823, US President James Monroe outlined what was later to become known as the "Monroe Doctrine."

    It identified the Western hemisphere as America's backyard, and nowhere more so than the Caribbean Sea. Old European colonial powers were told to keep out.

    Today China is doing something very similar in the East and South China seas.

    Everything inside the so-called "first island chain"— which stretches north in a curving line from the coast of Borneo, past Taiwan to southern Japan— is, in Beijing's opinion, China's backyard. Beijing's ambition is to dominate this sea-space and, ultimately, to deny access to the only other naval power in the world that can prevent China from doing so.

I do not get the comparison between the Monroe Doctrine and this.  The Old European colonial powers just ignored us and went about their business and we never did much about it.  We never built any islands.

[Phillip V]

I do not get the comparison between the Monroe Doctrine and this.  The Old European colonial powers just ignored us and went about their business and we never did much about it.  We never built any islands.

Didn't the U.S. buy and conquer some islands as well as get the French to abandon Mexico; Britain to abandon Venezuela?

[Valmy]

I do not get the comparison between the Monroe Doctrine and this.  The Old European colonial powers just ignored us and went about their business and we never did much about it.  We never built any islands.

Didn't the U.S. buy and conquer some islands as well as get the French to abandon Mexico; Britain to abandon Venezuela?

The French abandoned Mexico because their scheme was based on false (well wishful thinking) assumptions and was a catastrophe.  If the Mexicans had eagerly greeted them like they were assured they would be, the US was not going to invade over it.  Besides that the whole point was to get Austria to trade Venetia for Mexico.  Man how stupid was that?  Napoleon III was really grasping at straws trying to solve his Italian problem.

Saying the US force the UK to abandon 'Venezuela' is really stretching it.  It was a border dispute.  And we arbitrated we did not step in and drive the evil Euros from Venezuela.

Not sure what islands you are talking about.  If you mean the Islands we conquered from Spain that had nothing to do with the Monroe Doctrine since that was a pre-existing colony (which also makes the idea that the Monroe Doctrine made all the Europeans stay out sort of weak).  The pre-existing claims of the Philippines and Vietnam and others are not being recognized as they should by this Chinese Monroe Doctrine

[sbr]

Are there any French schemes that were not a catastrophe?

[Jaron]

Eclairs

[MadImmortalMan]

Obama should claim the moon. 

[sbr]

Eclairs

[Admiral Yi]

Are there any French schemes that were not a catastrophe?

The Suez Canal.

[sbr]

I liked Jaron's answer better.

[Viking]

Iceland actually went out a re-enforced a small (very small) island called Kolbeinsey It is a small rock in the ocean about 100 kilometers north of iceland itself. It is eroding. If it erodes away under the water line it will mean the icelandic economic zone in the norht atlantic (fishing rights) will recede 100 kilometers further south. So... The island is being re-enforced with concrete to prevent or end the erosion.

So, not novel.

[citizen k]

Philippine outpost:

The dilapidated navy ship LT57 BRP Sierra Madre is home to Philippine troops delpoyed at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal (local name Ayungin Shoal) in the South China Sea. AP/Bullit Marquez

Chinese outposts:

[Martinus]

Eclairs

[The Larch]

Nice basketball court, but it'll be a bitch when the ball bounces to the water and has to be recovered.