China Building Dubai-Style Fake Islands in South China Sea

[mota bhai 2,675]

Sand, cement, wood and steel are the latest tools in China’s territorial arsenal as it seeks to literally reshape the South China Sea.

Chinese ships carrying construction materials regularly ply the waters near the disputed Spratly Islands, carrying out work that will see new islands rise from the sea, according to Philippine fishermen and officials in the area. China’s efforts are reminiscent of Dubai’s Palm resort-style land reclamation, they say.

“They are creating artificial islands that never existed since the creation of the world, like the ones in Dubai,” said Eugenio Bito-onon, 58, mayor of a sparsely populated stretch of the Spratlys called Kalayaan, or “freedom” in Filipino. “The construction is massive and nonstop. That would lead to total control of the South China Sea,” Bito-onon said May 28, citing fishermen.

Artificial islands could help China anchor its claims and potentially develop bases to control waters that contain some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

...
“China’s end game is to have de facto -- if not de jure -- control over adjacent waters, the Western Pacific,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University. “The only question is if and how it will achieve it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-10/china-using-dubai-style-fake-islands-to-reshape-south-china-sea.html

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Boston did the same thing... in the 18th century...

NY too, to be fair, but not as much.

Probably other places too that I don't know about.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Harpa Timsah

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Why no photos? they show a photo of a "natural" Vietnamese island.. Show me photos of them working non-stop to make an island, that sounds cool.

And while your at it show me a photo of the "garbage island" the size of Texas we always here about.

Edited June 11, 2014 by OnMyWayID

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

It would be funny if as soon as the islands were finished the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and everyone else in the region China has tried to claim the territory of claimed those islands as their own

[GandD 5,966]

Boston did the same thing... in the 18th century...

NY too, to be fair, but not as much.

Probably other places too that I don't know about.

Hong Kong's currency is basically land. So, they dig out the mountains and "print" more money regularly.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Hong Kong's currency is basically land. So, they dig out the mountains and "print" more money regularly.

But flattening mountains isn't making land in the sea, right?

[GandD 5,966]

But flattening mountains isn't making land in the sea, right?

No. They dig up the mountains, throw it in the harbor, then sell it.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

No. They dig up the mountains, throw it in the harbor, then sell it.

Ooh, double evil! The more you know!