Vietnam’s island-building on disputed Spratlys to surpass China’s efforts: report

Vietnam has significantly expanded island-building work in areas it claims in the Spratly Islands chain of the disputed South China Sea and will match and likely surpass the scale of such activity there by China, a US think tank reported on Friday.

Recent satellite imagery showed that since the start of this year, Vietnam has expanded island-building to eight features previously untouched by a round of reclamation that began in 2021, the report from Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said.

The report from CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said the imagery showed Vietnam has undertaken dredging and landfill work at Alison Reef, Collins Reef, East Reef, Landsdowne Reef and Petley Reefs.

The work meant that all 21 Vietnamese-occupied rocks and low-tide elevations in the Spratly Islands chain have now been expanded to include artificial land, when four years ago a majority hosted only isolated pillbox structures.

The report said new expansion had also begun at three features that already hosted medium-sized artificial islands created in earlier rounds of dredging: Amboyna Cay, Grierson Reef, and West Reef.