South China Sea: Analysts Say China May Try to Use Manmade Islands to Bolster Bid for Economic Development

Jun 19, 2014 | Edward Wong,, The New York Times
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China has been moving sand onto some reefs and rocks in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea to create islands that can support buildings, equipment and human habitation. The construction is stirring anxiety in the Philippines and Vietnam, which compete with China over territorial claims in the Spratly Islands, and raising alarms in the United States, which sees China’s actions in the South China Sea as destabilizing.Analysts say China could try to assert that these new islands entitle the country to an exclusive economic zone that extends 200 miles from the islands’ shoreline. Such a zone is defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which China is a signatory.