Manila [Philippines], April 27 (ANI): China has intensified tensions in the contested South China Sea by raising its national flag on an uninhabited reef situated just a few kilometers from a major Philippine military base, according to a report by The Japan Times.
Images released by Chinese state media on Saturday showed China Coast Guard officers unfolding the national flag atop Sandy Cay Reef, known in China as Tiexian Jiao. The reef lies within the Spratly Islands chain, an area fraught with overlapping claims from Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Sandy Cay is located slightly over three kilometers from Thitu Island (called Pag-asa by the Philippines), which is home to Philippine military installations, a military-grade runway, and a civilian community of about 250 residents.
China’s Global Times reported that coast guard personnel had arrived at Sandy Cay earlier this month to “carry out an on-reef inspection,” document “illegal activities” on video, and clean up “plastic bottles, wooden sticks, and other litter” found scattered across the reef flat, as cited by The Japan Times.
In January, Beijing claimed that Chinese forces had intercepted and “dissuaded” Philippine naval vessels allegedly attempting “an illegal landing and sand sample collection” near the reef. In response, the Philippines dispatched coast guard vessels to monitor the area, investigating whether China is laying the groundwork for minor island reclamation activities.
China contends that Sandy Cay, covering approximately 200 square meters, is a natural formation and not an artificial structure. By that logic, under international law, it would be entitled to a 12-nautical-mile (22-km) territorial sea—potentially overlapping with waters surrounding Thitu Island.
Between 2013 and 2016, China launched extensive land reclamation efforts across the South China Sea, constructing military outposts to consolidate its sweeping claims over roughly 90 percent of the resource-rich waters—through which trillions of dollars in global trade flow annually.
Regional security experts warn that Beijing’s latest move could have broader strategic implications. “One of the ironies is that China’s interest in claiming Sandy Cay is about reinforcing the legitimacy of their claims to the adjacent Subi Reef, which now accommodates a major artificial port and airfield,” wrote Euan Graham, a regional security analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, on X (formerly Twitter). Graham noted that such actions are part of a broader “lawfare” strategy, using legal interpretations to justify territorial expansion. (ANI)
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