China debunks report of it building ‘unoccupied land features’ in South China Sea

Fresh satellite images from above the South China Sea show several unoccupied land features being built by China, western officials have said, accusing Beijing of further expanding its territorial claims on the disputed territory.

The globally critical waterways overlap with the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines in south Asia which are increasingly seeing protective measures from the US, the UK, Australia and India.

These new images show never-seen-before land formations appearing at Eldad Reed in the northern Spratly islands in the past year, reported Bloomberg.

Large holes, piles of debris and excavator tracks have been spotted at a site previously visible only partially at high tide, according to the report.

China’s embassy in the Phillippines capital Manila, however, dismissed the report. “This is fake news,” it was quoted as saying by CNN Phillippines.

Over the last 10 years, fishing fleets from China operating as a de facto maritime military in the region have carried out construction activities at four unoccupied spots in the disputed archipelago, the report said, citing officials.

These four sites have seen sand bars and other formations in the area expanded more than 10 times in recent years, the officials said.

A 2014 photo from the Philippines military captured the reef and a Chinese maritime vessel offloading an amphibious hydraulic excavator used in land reclamation projects.

This is the first recorded instance of China, or any other nation, building structures on a territory it does not occupy or control, even as it previously constructed disputed reefs and islands in the regions it long controlled.

The South China Sea accounts for trillions of dollars in trade flow every year and is also home to rich fishing grounds and gas fields.

Officials in the Philippines said they were “seriously concerned” after the report showed China to be reclaiming several unoccupied land features in the disputed South China Sea.

“We are seriously concerned as such activities contravene the Declaration of Conduct on the South China Sea’s undertaking on self-restraint and the 2016 Arbitral Award,” the Philippines foreign ministry said on Tuesday, reported AFP.

Other agencies are going to investigate these reports, the top ministry said.

The latest report has become a flashpoint between the US and China as top Chinese envoys in Manila accused Washington of driving a wedge between Beijing and its regional neighbour Philippines with "unfounded accusations" aimed at stirring up trouble in the South China Sea.

China’s embassy in Manila said it was "only natural for neighbours to have differences" but accused the US of constantly “meddling in the South China Sea disputes and trying to drive wedges between countries in the region, creating tensions and harming regional peace and stability.”

"What the US has done is not to help anyone but to serve its own geopolitical interests," it said.

This came a day after the US state department called out China’s alleged territorial grab.

“The reported escalating swarms of PRC vessels in the vicinity of Iroquois Reef and Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands interfere with the livelihoods of Philippine fishing communities, and also reflect continuing disregard for other South China Sea claimants and states lawfully operating in the region,” said the state department’s spokesperson Ned Price.

He added that the US shares the Philippines’ concerns regarding the “unsafe encounter that the PRC Coast Guard initiated with Philippines naval forces in the South China Sea, as documented before the Senate of the Philippines on 14 December.”