China is nearly done building air and naval facilities on seven islands it claims in the South China Sea, recent surveillance photos obtained by a Philippine newspaper and published yesterday showed..
China is nearly done building air and naval facilities on seven islands it claims in the South China Sea, recent surveillance photos obtained by a Philippine newspaper and published yesterday showed.
Responding to the report, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said the government was monitoring the situation and would continue to maintain good ties with Beijing.
“Right now, the posture of the President is maintain close ties so they wouldn’t have any reason to use those arms in those islands.”
The photos, taken from June to December last year and obtained by The Philippine Daily Inquirer, show that the runways for the three biggest islands – Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief – have been completed or are ready for use. Lighthouses, radar domes, hangars and multi-storey buildings have been built on them, while helipads, wind turbines and observation and communication towers can be seen on four smaller islands – Burgos, Calderon, McKennan and Johnson South.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, a US think-tank, said most of the work had been done on Fiery Cross, which now has a 3km-long runway and at least one rocket weapons system. It also reported underground tunnels, missile shelters, radars and high-frequency antennas on the islands.
The seven islands, which are also claimed by the Philippines, are shaping up as air and naval bases with few features for purely civilian uses, the Inquirer said.
