PH Navy: No new China reclamation in South China Sea since 2013
MANILA, Philippines — Beijing has not conducted reclamation activities in its occupied features in the South China Sea since 2013, according to the Philippine Navy.
Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, made the confirmation on Tuesday.
“[The reclamation activities] were finished in 2013; there are no new reclamation,” Trinidad said in an ambush interview in Filipino.
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To date, a total of 3,000 hectares have been reclaimed by China since it began the activity, according to Trinidad. Most of this occurred during the massive reclamation phase from 2011 to 2013, the spokesperson said.
Trinidad also said China has been further militarizing its occupied features in the South China Sea, especially in Subi Reef, where heavy equipment has been monitored since 2023.
Article continues after this advertisement“These are functional military bases; they have already militarized the South China Sea,” Trinidad said.
Article continues after this advertisement“They started putting up military communications on these islands. They placed in there harbor facilities for their PLA-N (People’s Liberation Army-Navy) ships, the coast guard, and the maritime militia,” he said.
Aside from China, Vietnam, which occupies the most number of features in the South China Sea, has also been involved in reclamation activities.
As of November 2023, the reclamation works of Vietnam have reached 955 hectares, according to the report of think tank Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.
Apart from China and the Philippines, Asean countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam are also claimants of Spratly Islands inside the South China Sea.
Maritime features of the Spratly inside the western section of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines — known as the West Philippine Sea — are locally known as the Kalayaan Island Group.
Despite the overlapping claims, China asserts sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, through its now ten-dash-line.
A July 2016 arbitral award which stemmed from a case filed by Manila in 2013 already invalidated Beijing’s then nine-dash-line.
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