A prelude to war! Chinese island building project aimed to create military bases in South China Sea

New satellite images are showing that China has begun constructing an island on a reef near the disputed Spratly Islands, which could be large enough to accommodate  an airstrip, its first in the South China Sea.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - That China may be establishing a heavy military presence to lay a greater claim on the mineral-rich archipelago has caused concern with its neighbors, and has only increased tensions.

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Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei all have claims on islands that are disputed by China. Recently China has become very aggressive in its bids to control these, often, resource rich territories.

Jane's Information Group, a British publishing company, has reported that images it has obtained show that an island China build on the Fiery Cross Reef is at least 1.9 miles long, and between 660 to 980 feet wide.

As the company noted, it is "large enough to construct a runway."

This Chinese project is a clear rebuff to calls from the United States to halt its provocative activity in the South China Sea, which is antagonizing neighbors and building tensions.

Further supporting evidence that the new island is intended for military use, Chinese dredgers are creating a harbor just east of the reef "that would appear to be large enough to receive tankers and major surface combatants."

This is just the fourth land reclamation project that has occurred in the Spratly Islands since 2013 and 2014, and is the largest.

Photos taken by Jane's on August 8 and November 14 showed that these dredgers had created a land mass almost the length of the reef.

Previously, Fiery Cross Reef was wholly underwater. The only habitable area was a concrete platform that had been built earlier by China's navy. The structure housed a Chinese garrison, a pier, air-defense guns, a greenhouse and communications equipment.

So far, all calls from the U.S. to halt activity in disputed waters have fallen on deaf ears.  The Chinese government has said it can, and will, build whatever it wants, wherever it pleases.

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