By David Tweed

(Bloomberg) — Lighthouses have for hundreds of years guided the world’s seafarers, stopping ships from putting rocks and reefs and serving to fishermen discover their means residence. In the disputed South China Sea, they might be taking over a darker function.

China’s program to construct beacons on reclaimed reefs it occupies within the waters — via which about 30 p.c of world commerce passes — is spooking different claimant international locations involved it’s going to use them as political instruments. Having lighthouses perched on prime of the reefs, ostensibly to assist navigation within the waters, might enhance China’s argument for sovereignty.

The nation is expediting development, having constructed two lighthouses within the Paracel islands and two within the Spratly archipelago as of October. They are a part of an array of civilian amenities that China says will serve the general public good by offering bases for search and rescue operations and meteorological data.

There’s doubtlessly one other motivation: So that China can promote the concept the reefs it occupies have sufficient infrastructure — and peak — to be thought to be islands, albeit synthetic ones. It has indicated this entitles it to a 12-nautical mile territorial zone within the surrounding waters, one thing just lately challenged by a U.S. warship that got here inside that vary of 1 reef.

“Building facilities on any features for which the sovereignty is disputed, and you are building a case toward administrative control, which can make quite a difference in international legal proceedings,” stated Alexander Sullivan, an affiliate fellow on the Center for a New American Security in Washington. “Doing things like building lighthouses as opposed to runways or barracks allows them to make the argument they are providing public goods.”

China claims greater than 80 p.c of the South China Sea primarily based on a nine-dash line drawn on a Forties map lodged informally with the United Nations in 2009. The map covers round 2 million sq. kilometers of maritime area equal to about 22 p.c of China’s land space, in response to a U.S. State Department estimate. It additionally overlaps claims from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.

Dredging Sand

In the previous yr China has alarmed some neighbors with a dredging program that has dumped hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sand and coral onto seven options within the Spratlys, creating at the very least 2,900 acres of land — greater than 3 times the dimensions of New York’s Central Park– on the options, a few of which had been beforehand submerged at excessive tide. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea these are referred to as “low-tide elevations” that don’t warrant a 12-mile territorial zone.

The U.S. final month sailed the USS Lassen inside 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, a man-made island created by Chinese engineers on a low-tide elevation. China’s overseas ministry protested the patrol, saying it handed in waters “near” its territory and “threatened” its sovereignty.

Two B-52 bombers flew “a routine mission” this week close to the Spratly islands, in response to Pentagon spokesman Bill Urban. The planes, which didn’t move via the territorial zones across the reclaimed reefs, acquired verbal warnings from Chinese floor controllers and continued their operation in accordance with worldwide regulation, he stated.

“China is aware of the situation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei stated at a briefing. China “resolutely opposes any country, in the name of freedom of navigation and flight, violating international law and undermining China’s sovereignty and security interests.”

Civilian Facilities

China earlier this yr mounted a diplomatic marketing campaign contending that the development blitz, whereas partly for army functions, was primarily to enhance the dwelling and dealing circumstances of personnel stationed there, in addition to higher performing its “international responsibilities” by constructing civilian amenities that neighbors might use.

A current determination by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that it has jurisdiction to listen to Philippine complaints about China’s claims within the South China Sea could have implications for China’s strategy.

Sullivan stated the tribunal could decide that essentially the most expansive model of China’s nine-dash line assertion is illegitimate, elevating the chance it withdraws the map and resubmits separate claims for maritime options and the entitlements that go together with them. That’s a giant if, although, given how a lot President Xi Jinping has embedded the nine-dash line into China’s psyche of a resurgent regional energy.

Philippine Anger

When China introduced in October that it had accomplished two lighthouses on two Spratly options — Cuarteron Reef and Johnson Reef — it sparked an offended response from the Philippines. “These actions are obviously intended to change the actual conditions on the ground and aimed at bolstering China’s territorial claim in the South China Sea,” overseas affairs division spokesman Charles Jose stated. “We will not accept these unilateral actions as a fait accompli.”

China’s development work was an “unwarranted provocation,” Malaysia’s Armed Forces chief Zulkefli Mohd Zin stated at a safety convention in Beijing final month.

“China has pledged to make these facilities available to all ships, and so this very much plays into that idea that they are just proving a public service to the international maritime community,” stated James Kraska, analysis director on the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law on the U.S. Naval War College. “The lighthouses, along with all of the other infrastructure they are putting on these features, at least in China’s mind, will buttress their claims.”

‘Increases Tension’

Vietnam can be delicate to China’s development program within the Paracel islands, occupied by China since 1974. Two lighthouses had been accomplished within the islands, referred to as Xisha in Chinese, official information company Xinhua reported Oct. 22.

Vietnam Foreign ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh stated the constructing on the Paracels infringes Vietnam’s sovereignty, “increases tension, and seriously threatens regional peace and stability.”

“China is using the lighthouses to support their claim that the Paracels belong to China,” stated Ha Hoang Hop, visiting senior fellow on the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “That is the problem.”

–With help from John Boudreau, Diep Ngoc Pham, Andreo Calonzo, Tony Capaccio and Janet Ong.

©2015 Bloomberg News

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