Great wall of sand

The "great wall of sand" is the common name given to a series of land reclamation projects undertaken by the Chinese government since 2014 in the South China Sea – particularly the Paracel Island and Spratly island groups – in order to strengthen Chinese territorial claims to the region demarcated by the "nine-dash line". They are created by dredging sand onto coral reefs to create artificial islands which are then concreted to make permanent structures. By the 2015 Shangri-La Dialogue over 8.1 square kilometres (810 ha) of new land has been created. By June 2015, the land reclamation had reached 13.5 km² and appeared complete.

China states that the construction is for "improving the working and living conditions of people stationed on these islands" and that, "China is aiming to provide shelter, aid in navigation, weather forecasts and fishery assistance to ships of various countries passing through the sea." Defence analysts IHS Janes states that it is a "methodical, well planned campaign to create a chain of air and sea-capable fortresses". These "military-ready" installations include sea-walls and deep-water ports, barracks, and notably including runways on Fiery Cross Reef and Johnson South Reef. Aside from geo-political tensions, concerns have been raised about the environmental impact on fragile reef ecosystems through the destruction of habitat, pollution and interruption of migration routes.

There is no known official term for the projects; the phrase "great wall of sand" was first used by Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, in March 2015.

Other countries in the region are also undertaking, on a far smaller scale, similar operations. As of 2015, the Pentagon estimates for the amount of reclaimed land by area per country is as follows: China (2,900 acres), Vietnam (80 acres), Malaysia (70 acres), the Philippines (14 acres) and Taiwan (8 acres).

Reclamation activities

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative's "Island tracker" lists the following locations as sites of island reclamation activities:

Chinese land reclamation projects

English name	Chinese name	Filipino name	Vietnamese name	Facilities added	Reclaimed area	Ref.
Cuarteron Reef	Huáyáng Dǎo (华阳島)	Calderon Reef	Đá Châu Viên	Access channel, Breakwaters, Multiple support buildings, New helipad, Possible radar facility	0.231 km2 (57 acres)	[1]
Fiery Cross Reef	Yǒngshǔ Dǎo (永暑島)	Kagitingan Reef	Đá Chữ Thập	Airstrip, Harbor, Multiple cement plants, Multiple support buildings, Piers	2.74 km2 (680 acres)	[2]
Gaven Reef	Nánxūn Dǎo (南薰島)	Burgos Reefs	Đá Ga Ven	Access channel, Anti-air guns, Communications equipment, Construction support structure, Defensive tower, Naval guns	0.136 km2 (34 acres)	[3]
Hughes Reef	Dōngmén Dǎo (东门島)	—	Đá Tư Nghĩa	Access channel, Coastal fortifications, Four Defensive Towers, Harbor, Multi-level military facility	0.76 km2 (190 acres)	[4]
Johnson South Reef	Chìguā Dǎo (赤瓜島)	Mabini Reef	Đá Gạc Ma	Access channel, Concrete plant, Defensive Towers, Desalination pumps, Fuel dump, Multi-level military facility, Possible radar facility	0.109 km2 (27 acres)	[5]
Mischief Reef	Měijì Dǎo (美济島)	Panganiban Reef	Đá Vành Khăn	Access channel, Fortified Seawalls	5.58 km2 (1,380 acres)	[6]
Subi Reef	Zhǔbì Dǎo (渚碧島)	Zamora Reef	Đá Xu Bi	Access channel, Piers, Airstrip	3.95 km2 (980 acres)	[7]

^{^} The current official Chinese names use Dǎo (島) meaning "island". Previously this was Jiāo (礁) meaning "reef", as PRC officially talked about the Chinese: 赤瓜礁海战; pinyin: Chìguā jiāo hǎizhàn, the "Johnson South reef naval battle" the current name of the place became Chinese: 赤瓜島; pinyin: Chìguā Dǎo and PRC's foreign ministry is now talking about "China's Nansha Islands".

Total reclaimed area on these 7 reefs: 13.5 km² (3,300 acres)

External media
Audio
What’s behind Beijing’s drive to control the South China Sea? (text) by Howard W. French in The Guardian, July 2015
Video
Is China building on disputed Spratly Islands reefs? BBC News
Confronting China: US Navy Flies Over Disputed Islands in South China Sea AiirSource Military Videos

Machinery

China used hundreds of dredges and barges including a giant self-propelled dredger, the Tian Jing Hao. Built in 2009 in China, the vessel, Tian Jing Hao, is a 127 m-long seagoing cutter suction dredger designed by German engineering company Vosta LMG; (Lübecker Maschinenbau Gesellschaft (de)). At 6,017 gross tonnes, with a dredging capacity of 4500m³/h, it is credited as being the largest of its type in Asia. It has been operating on Cuarteron Reef, the Gaven Reefs, and at Fiery Cross Reef.

Strategic importance

More than half of the world's annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through the Strait of Malacca, Sunda Strait, and Lombok Strait, with the majority continuing on into the South China Sea. Tanker traffic through the Strait of Malacca leading into the South China Sea is more than three times greater than Suez Canal traffic, and well over five times more than the Panama Canal. The People's Republic of China (PRC) has stated its unilateral claim to almost the entire body of water.

Legal issues

• Unilateral declared sovereignty.

Territorial waters of an artificial island

• Artificial islands built on a submerged feature

As the Mischief Reef and Subi Reef are under the water, they are considered by the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) as "sea bed" in "international waters". Although the PRC had ratified a limited UNCLOS III not allowing innocent passage of war ships, according the UNCLOS III, features built on the sea bed cannot have territorial waters.

• Artificial islands built on a rock

• Artificial islands built in disputed waters

Environmental legal issues

The PRC has ratified UNCLOS III; the convention establishes general obligations for safeguarding the marine environment and protecting freedom of scientific research on the high seas, and also creates an innovative legal regime for controlling mineral resource exploitation in deep seabed areas beyond national jurisdiction, through an International Seabed Authority and the Common heritage of mankind principle.

Regional concept

According to Chinese sources, the concept was invented in 1972 by the Bureau of Survey and Cartography of Vietnam under the Office of Premier Phạm Văn Đồng which printed out "The World Atlas" and said "The chain of islands from the Nansha and Xisha Islands to Hainan Island, Taiwan Island, the Penghu Islands and the Zhoushan Islands are shaped like a bow and constitute a Great Wall defending the China mainland." The "great wall of sand" is 150 nautical miles (280 km) to the 'Secret James Bond-style' Chinese underground nuclear submarine base near Sanya on Hainan Island. Yulin Naval Base (榆林海军基地) is a naval base for nuclear submarines along the southern coast of Hainan Island, People's Republic of China. This underground base has been reported by several intelligence agencies, especially Indian agencies. The images collected by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) in February 2008 shows that China constructed a large scale underground base for its naval forces.

Description

The caverns are capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites. The harbor houses nuclear ballistic missile submarines and is large enough to accommodate aircraft carriers. The US Department of Defense has estimated that China will have five Type 094 nuclear submarines operational by 2010 with each capable of carrying 12 JL-2 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Two 950 metre piers and three smaller ones would be enough to accommodate two carrier strike groups or amphibious assault ships.

Location

The submarine base is located at the point in Chinese territory that is closest to the continental shelf. It is roughly 50 nautical miles (93 km) from the base to the 200 meter isobath. It is 150 nautical miles (280 km) to the closest of the disputed Paracel Islands and 250 nautical miles (460 km) to the city of Da Nang, Vietnam. Speculation has been raised that the base is intended to be expanded to include future capability for aircraft carrier groups.

The submarine base is not in a remote location. It is only a few miles from the city of Sanya (population 536,000 in 2006), a popular tourist destination and the site of a major planned future cruise hub. The base is immediately next to the Yalong Bay National Resort District featuring resort hotels operated by Banyan Tree, Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, Ritz Carlton, and Holiday Inn right outside of the entrance.

Reactions

• China – Following confrontations between US P8-A Poseidon aircraft and the Chinese Navy over the constructions in May 2015, China stated that it has "...the right to engage in monitoring in the relevant air space and waters to protect the country's sovereignty and prevent accidents at sea."
• USA – The construction is considered to be a key motivating factor behind the Obama administration's "Asia Pivot" military strategy. It believes "...that China’s activities in the South China Sea are driven by nationalism, part of a wider strategy aimed at undercutting US influence in Asia." It has declared that it would operate military aircraft in the region "'...in accordance with international law in disputed areas of the South China Sea' and would continue to do so 'consistent with the rights freedoms and lawful uses of the sea.'"

Since October 2015, when the USS Lassen passed close to man-made land built upon Subi Reef, the US has been conducing Freedom of navigation operations (FONOP) with Arleigh Burke-class Guided missile destroyers approximately every three months near the artificial islands.

• Australia – Opposed to "any coercive or unilateral actions to change the status quo in the South and East China Sea", Australia continues to fly routine surveillance operations and exercise the right to freedom of navigation in international airspace "in accordance with the international civil aviation convention, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."
• South Korea – No official stance, maintains an "...increasingly notable silence on freedom of navigation in the South China Sea".
• ASEAN – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations stated that the constructions "may undermine peace, security and stability" in the region as well as having strongly negative impact on the marine environment and fishery stocks.
• G7 – In a "Declaration on maritime security" before the 41st G7 summit, the G7 stated that, "We continue to observe the situation in the East and South China Seas and are concerned by any unilateral actions, such as large scale land reclamation, which change the status quo and increase tensions. We strongly oppose any attempt to assert territorial or maritime claims through the use of intimidation, coercion or force.
• International Court of Justice – A ruling from the International Court of Justice in the Hague on a claim by the Philippines to sovereignty over reefs also claimed by China is expected in June 2016. Three reefs - Johnson South Reef (Mabini Reef), Hughes Reef and Mischief Reef (Panganiban Reef) - are within 200 nautical miles from Palawan and situated in the EEZ claimed by the Philippines.

Further information: Philippines v. China

Ecological impact

Aside from geo-political tensions, concerns have been raised about the environmental impact on fragile reef ecosystems through the destruction of habitat, pollution and interruption of migration routes. These new islands are built on reefs previously 1m below the level of the sea. For back-filling these 7 artificial islands, a total area of 13.5 million m², to the height of few meters, China had to destroy surrounding reefs and pumping 40 or 50 million m³ of sand and corals, resulting in significant and irreversible damage to the environment. Frank Muller-Karger, professor of biological oceanography at the University of South Florida, said sediment “can wash back into the sea, forming plumes that can smother marine life and could be laced with heavy metals, oil and other chemicals from the ships and shore facilities being built.” Such plumes threaten the biologically diverse reefs throughout the Spratlys, which Dr. Muller-Karger said may have trouble surviving in sediment-laden water.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes visited the vicinity of the Philippine-controlled island of Pagasa, by plane and boat , said he saw Chinese fishermen poaching and destroying the reefs on a massive scale. As he saw Chinese fishermen poaching endangered species like massive giant clam, he noted “None of this proves China is protecting the poachers. But nor does Beijing appear to be doing anything to stop them. The poachers we saw showed absolutely no sign of fear when they saw our cameras filming them”. He concludes: “However shocking the reef plundering I witnessed, it is as nothing compared to the environmental destruction wrought by China's massive island building programme nearby. The latest island China has just completed at Mischief Reef is more than 9km (six miles) long. That is 9km of living reef that is now buried under millions of tonnes of sand and gravel.”

A famous 2014 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)report said: "Sand is rarer than one thinks".

The average price of sand imported by Singapore was US $3 per tonne from 1995 to 2001, but the price increased to US $190 per tonne from 2003 to 2005. Although the Philippines and the PRC had both ratified the UNCLOS III, in the case of and Johnson South Reef, Hughes Reef, Mischief Reef, the PRC dredged sand for free in the EEZ the Philippines had claimed from 1978 arguing this is the "waters of China's Nansha Islands."

Although the consequences of substrate mining are hidden, they are tremendous. Aggregate particles that are too fine to be used are rejected by dredging boats, releasing vast dust plumes and changing water turbidity...

John McManus, a professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said: “The worst thing anyone can do to a coral reef is to bury it under tons of sand and gravel.” “There are global security concerns associated with the damage. It is likely broad enough to reduce fish stocks in the world’s most fish-dependent region,” He explained that “[the reason] the world has heard little about the damage inflicted by the Peoples Republic of China to the reefs is that the experts can’t get to them.” and noted “I have colleagues from the Philippines, Taiwan, PRC, Vietnam and Malaysia who have worked in the Spratly area. Most would not be able to get near the artificial islands except possibly some from PRC, and those would not be able to release their findings.”