"China Building String of Islands in South China Sea" Topic

Not content with just building one, or two, China is building a string of five man-made islands in the South China Sea to support its territorial claims there:

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I suspect they believe that this will help them to control the region, since their patrol and air defense aircraft will have bases closer to their theater of operations.

They are also building an airbase on an island approximately 180 miles from the Senkakus, to project power there as well.

No doubt, with these bases, they will be in a significantly better position to defend their territorial claims in the region, militarily, far away from the Chinese mainland.

Well yeah. No one's going to kick them off an island they built in international waters. I don't understand why, though. It's going to cost them a bundle to maintain them, and it's not like they'll be making some of that up by turning them into a tourist attraction.

Maybe if they hire Dubai to make them look like palm trees.

Because it's called South CHINA sea.

They're doing it so they have a stronger claim to all the resources under the sea, e.g. fish, natural gas, oil, etc.

Hard to argue with someone having a strong claim to islands they've created from the bottom of the sea.

Of course, they're probably devastating the local sea life and reefs in the process, but perhaps once all the sand settles, the islands will actually be a net benefit to the areas, eventually.

'Because it's called South CHINA sea.'

Not in China. In China it is just 南海，the 'South Sea'. And Chinese food is just called 'food'.

I think Mako11 has summed it up well. These islands are a powerful support to claims of sovereignty.