China: If We Built It. It Must Be Ours

China has in the last several years become quite aggressive if not arrogant in making territorial claims in both the South and East China seas.  In November of last year China unilaterally declared a no fly zone over two thirds of the  East China sea to include territory which clearly belongs to South Korea and Japan.  Following that the Chinese government issued a map which claimed China controlled almost the entirety of the South China sea.     In April China moved an oil drilling rig into disputed waters with Vietnam which set off anti Chinese riots resulting in several deaths, destruction of property and they evacuation of its citizens from Vietnam.   China seems to believe these unilateral actions will be a fait accompli except China never its actions might lead to mutual defense agreements between Japan and the countries of Southeast Asia   currently in facing China's territorial land grabs.  After all China beats  the Japan "is coming for your country" like a cheap drum.  That seems to have backfired.

Now China is constructing artificial islands to further boost its claims.


 Pity the poor mapmaker assigned to the South China Sea. The hotly disputed waters in the Pacific are torn between competing claims from all the countries that surround it. China, especially, has been aggressive and sly. It's now dumping sand onto small reefs and shoals, building whole new islands to bolster its territorial claims.

The long list of countries with a claim to the South China Sea also includes Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand, and many are not happy about China's island building. Why do they care so much about this tiny patch of the Pacific? A third of the world's shipping passes through the South China Sea, and huge oil and gas reserves are believed to lie beneath it.

There's no shortage of islands in the sea already; China has just decided to circumvent natural geography. Hundreds of tiny, mostly uninhabited islands dot the South China Sea, and it's ownership of these islands that determines who can lay claim to the surrounding waters. Since January, China has built three or four new islands in the Spratly archipelago near the Philippines.