(Jan 17): Amid US 1ran Tension, China Increasingly Deploys its All Military Power to Disputed Island

China’s campaign to militarize the South China Sea began in 2009 when it submitted a new map to the United Nations showing the now-infamous “Nine-Dash Line”—a series of boundary dashes over the South China Sea that it claimed demarcated Chinese territory. Since then, China has expanded at least seven reefs and islets in the sea with sand dredged from the ocean floor, including Subi Reef, Mischief Reef, Johnson Reef, Hughes Reef, Gaven Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, and Cuarteron Reef.

Cuarteron Reef now has a new High-Frequency early-warning radar facility for detecting incoming aircraft, a development difficult to square with a peaceful mission. Farther north, but still, in disputed territory, China has installed HQ-9 long-range surface-to-air on Woody Island.

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