BBC: Flying close to Beijing's new South China Sea islands
Last year the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes travelled across the South China Sea in a fishing boat and became the first journalist to observe close-up how China is constructing new islands on coral reefs. A few days ago he returned to the area in a small aircraft - provoking a furious and threatening response from the Chinese Navy.
The scattered atolls, reefs and sand bars known as the Spratly Islands are a very difficult place to get to. Some are controlled by Vietnam, others by the Philippines, one by Taiwan, and then of course there are those controlled by China.
Don't expect an invitation from Beijing. Believe me, I've tried. Only the Philippines will let you visit a tiny 400m-long scrap of land called Pagasa. It's just about big enough to land a small aircraft on.
Update: Chinese military threatens BBC reporter flying over disputed South China Sea islands -- The Independent
WNU Editor: The Australians are now joining a long list of countries that are testing China's claims in the South China Sea .... South China Sea: Australia steps up air patrols in defiance of Beijing (Sydney Morning Herald).
1 comment:
It's definitely the start off a new cold war with doomsday clock at 2 min to tension in the middle east, secret war with China and nukes being upgraded for the first time in 20 years with all that I may become a doomsday prepar
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