Why military base on contested Paracels will be of ‘limited’ value to Beijing
Chinese observers weigh in amid rising concern over Beijing’s land reclamation activities at Antelope Reef
The strategic value to Beijing of a new military base in the contested Paracel Islands is likely to be limited, according to Chinese observers, as the South China Sea remains a focal point of regional tensions.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said in a report last week that developing Antelope Reef into a military base could enable Beijing to extend its surveillance range closer to Vietnam’s coast and further consolidate its control over the northern South China Sea.
Without mentioning the Antelope Reef, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday that the “construction” being carried out in the Paracels was “aimed at improving the living conditions of the islands’ residents and serving local economic development”.
Hu Bo, director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, a Beijing-based think tank, said the location of Antelope Reef limited its military value for China.
“It is within China’s territorial sea baseline, and China already has a military base at Yongxing Island about 100km (62 miles) away, so I think its military value is relatively limited.”
He was referring to Woody Island, the largest in the Paracels archipelago and home to Beijing’s administrative hub overseeing its expansive claims in the South China Sea.
Chen Xiangmiao, a research fellow at the government-backed National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said Beijing’s military posture was “sufficient” to address the pressing challenges it faced in the region, including close-in reconnaissance operations by the United States.
Apart from Woody Island, China also maintains a major naval base at Yulin near Sanya, a port city on its southern Hainan island, about 300km from Antelope Reef and home to the PLA’s submarine fleet.
Additionally, the PLA Southern Theatre Command Navy is headquartered at Zhanjiang, a port city on Leizhou peninsula in southern Guangdong province roughly 520km from the reef.
“These bases are capable of accommodating warplanes and naval vessels, and that’s sufficient to maintain posture in the vital waterway and there’s no need to build another military base,” Chen said.
China took full control of the Paracels – known as the Xisha Islands in China and the Hoang Sa Islands in Vietnam – in 1974.
Beijing maintains that there are no disputes over the Paracels and frequently cites a 1958 diplomatic note from Pham Van Dong, then prime minister of North Vietnam, as evidence that Vietnam recognised Chinese sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands.
But Vietnam has rejected the note’s validity, arguing that South China Sea territorial disputes fell under South Vietnam’s jurisdiction while Pham represented only North Vietnam at the time. The two were formally unified in July 1976.
In early January, American news magazine Newsweek cited satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites to report that new sand dredging began at Antelope Reef – known as Lingyang Jiao in China and Da Hai Sam in Vietnam – around October last year.
The AMTI report used recent commercial satellite imagery from US-based Vantor to say that roughly 603 hectares (1,490 acres) of land had been reclaimed at Antelope Reef, describing the scale as “striking”.
So far the biggest artificial island China has constructed in the South China Sea is Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands. It covers roughly 608 hectares and is equipped with military infrastructure like airstrips and missile launchers, boosting Beijing’s power projection in waters also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
‘No dispute about it’: Beijing defends construction on Paracel Islands in South China Sea
China says living conditions and local economy stand to benefit, days after Vietnam states opposition to land-reclamation activities
“The Xisha Islands are an inherent part of China’s territory and there is no dispute about it,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday, using the Chinese name for the archipelago.
“China’s necessary construction activities on its own territory are aimed at improving the living conditions of the islands’ residents and serving local economic development,” Lin said, without specifying the location of the activities.
She said Hanoi had “ample historical evidence and legal grounds” to assert sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, including Antelope Reef, and called any foreign activities in the waters without Vietnam’s permission “completely illegal and invalid”.
On Thursday, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said that roughly 603 hectares (1,490 acres) of land had been reclaimed at Antelope Reef, using recent commercial satellite imagery from US-based Vantor.
It said if the construction proceeded at the pace seen in satellite imagery, Antelope Reef would become China’s largest feature in the Paracels and possibly in the entire South China Sea, equalling or even surpassing Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, which covers roughly 608 hectares.
Mischief Reef is China’s largest artificial island in the South China Sea and one of the “big three” outposts in the disputed Spratlys where Beijing has built long runways and installed radar and missile systems.
In January, Newsweek reported that new sand dredging began at Antelope Reef – known as Lingyang Jiao in China and Da Hai Sam in Vietnam – in about October last year, citing satellite imagery from the European Space Agency.
Antelope Reef is strategically located about 300km (185 miles) from Sanya, a port city on the southernmost tip of the Chinese island of Hainan and about 400km from Da Nang on the Vietnamese coast.
China took full control of the Paracels in 1974 after a naval battle with South Vietnam, which collapsed the following year when forces from its northern neighbour captured Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, at the end of the Vietnam war.
