China's island creation will lead to what it dreads - containment

THE South China Sea imbroglio seems to be settling into a long game of attrition. That display of political theatre when a US spy plane with reporters on board flew directly over Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands where China is building up an artificial island, not unexpectedly, drew a fast response from Beijing.

It lodged a protest over the spy flight - but thereafter assumed an air of studied nonchalance and carried on with its reclamation works. Indeed, Beijing now claims, all of a sudden, that it has responsibilities for "maritime search and rescue, disaster prevention and mitigation, marine scientific research, meteorological observation, ecological environment preservation, safety of navigation and fishery production" in the South China Sea.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore recently, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter revealed that China has, in just the last 18 months, created more than 800 hectares of land from the reefs. This is more than all the other claimants' reclamation work combined. The reefs, natural coral structures, are under water at high tide and therefore not considered territorial land under the UN Law of the Seas.