Vietnam has condemned China’s land reclamation actions at Antelope reef within the disputed Paracel Islands, following stories of accelerated dredging, landfill and development operations there that, based on a U.S.-based suppose tank, may make it “China’s largest characteristic” within the South China Sea.
“Any international actions carried out in Hoang Sa, together with Hai Sam reef, with out Vietnam’s permission are utterly unlawful and invalid,” Vietnamese international ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Grasp stated on Saturday, referring to the archipelago and the reef claimed by Hanoi and Beijing, in addition to Taiwan, by their Vietnamese names. “Vietnam resolutely opposes such actions.”
Final week, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, or AMTI, a undertaking of the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research, or CSIS, in Washington, printed an evaluation of satellite tv for pc imagery that stated huge land reclamation efforts underway at Antelope Reef over the previous month may make the reef appropriate to assemble a 9,000-foot (2700-meter) runway.
Beijing has constructed a number of airstrips of that measurement on different islands within the South China Sea together with within the Spratly Islands, one other disputed archipelago, the AMTI report stated.
Territorial flashpoint
Although sovereignty over the Paracels is disputed, China took efficient management of the archipelago after a 1974 naval conflict with South Vietnam, which misplaced the Vietnam Warfare to North Vietnam the next yr.
Referred to as the Xisha Islands by Beijing, the island chain is now one in all a number of flashpoints within the South China Sea, the place a number of nations assert overlapping territorial and maritime claims.
Media stories in early 2026 highlighted new Chinese language dredging and landfill exercise at Antelope Reef. Beforehand it had been one in all China’s smallest outposts within the space.
Beijing started main dredging there in October 2025 and has began what seems to be preliminary development for an airstrip in current weeks, together with greater than 50 small grey-roofed buildings and a helipad close to the lagoon entrance, in addition to foundations for bigger buildings and several other jetties, the report stated.
AMTI estimated that the reclaimed land at Antelope Reef measures roughly 1,490 acres (6.02 sq. kilometers), near the 1,504 acres (6.09 sq. kilometers) of Mischief Reef, China’s largest outpost within the South China Sea. By comparability, Woody Island – the most important Chinese language-held characteristic within the Paracels – measures about 890 acres (3.60 sq. kilometers).
“If development proceeds on the tempo seen in satellite tv for pc imagery, Antelope Reef is about to grow to be China’s largest characteristic within the Paracels and probably in all the South China Sea, equaling and even surpassing the dimensions of Mischief Reef within the Spratlys,” the report stated.
The lagoon at Antelope Reef may additionally assist a bigger maritime presence.
“This might enable extra coastguard together with giant numbers of maritime militia to take care of a presence on the reef, as has been widespread lately at Mischief Reef,” AMTI stated.
Antelope reef is positioned about 162 nautical miles (300 kilometers) from Sanya Port in China’s Hainan province and 216 nautical miles (400 kilometers) from Da Nang, Vietnam. Sanya is a significant base for Chinese language naval and air forces overseeing the South China Sea, underscoring the situation’s strategic significance.
The Legislation of the Sea
China’s growth of the reef doesn’t essentially bolster its claims to the Paracels from a authorized perspective, based on Josue Raphael J. Cortez, the School and Practicum Coordinator on the College of Diplomacy and Governance at De La Salle-Faculty of Saint Benilde within the Philippines.
“It is because if we can be using UNCLOS as the idea of a rustic’s maritime entitlements, the idea is and can at all times be the pure situations of those options,” he instructed Radio Free Asia, referring to the United Nations Conference on the Legislation of the Sea.
Adopted in 1982 and in impact since 1994, UNCLOS is the first worldwide authorized framework governing maritime rights. As a result of it closely depends on “naturally shaped” land options to outline every nation’s unique financial zone and territorial seas, synthetic growth doesn’t mechanically create new authorized rights.
Cortez additionally stated that regional reactions could be carefully watched, significantly given the reef’s proximity to Vietnam.
“Provided that the reef is proximate in Vietnam’s portion of the South China Sea, will probably be an fascinating alternative for the area to have an thought of how such a transfer can be perceived,” he stated.
The event additionally comes amid renewed tensions elsewhere within the South China Sea, significantly between China and the Philippines over competing sovereignty claims.
Manila not too long ago rejected Beijing’s claims over disputed territory, together with Scarborough Shoal, insisting the Philippines’ claims are grounded in worldwide regulation. China, in the meantime, has pushed again towards what it calls “misrepresentations” of its place.
The shoal is a triangular chain of reefs and lagoons positioned off the western coast of the Philippines which China has maintained management of since a standoff in 2012.
Manila continues to say its rights underneath worldwide regulation, together with a 2016 arbitral ruling that discovered Beijing’s claims in a lot of the South China Sea haven’t any authorized foundation.
Edited by Eugene Whong.
