By: William Dong

The two rivals, Vietnam and China have been competing for the islands ever since the early 2000s to the 2020s. Those competitors include: Vietnam, China the Philippines are also part of the sightings.

Vietnam is building islands faster than ever. This leaves some Southeastern Asian Policy experts worried. Those experts say that if the construction continues, a hard dispute may start. Both Vietnam and China had claimed the same part of the ocean and the oil rich region.

In the past three years, Vietnam has reclaimed 2000 acers of land from the ocean. Another early report said it also reclaimed 700 acres since November 2023. This is about as much as China reclaimed in the former two years. Another report said that it was issued by an Asian maritime analysis outfit.

Since 2013, seven artificial islands were built from China in the mostly vacant Sparty islands. Three of those islands are stocked with airfields, aircraft hangars, missiles, and other military hardware such as artillery, vehicles, tanks, trucks, it’s crammed with military weapons and vehicles.

Both sides are obviously against for building islands. At least one rival is expressing a nuanced view of the countries. The Philippine navy says it’s watching events. But the coast guard Jay Tarriela told reporters that Vietnam prefers to focus on its own “affairs.”

Unlike China, Tarriela said, Vietnam doesn’t harass “our fishermen.” And they don’t illegally send coast guard ships into waters around “our occupied maritime features,” he added.

Image Credit by Greece-China News