Hughes Reef in the Spratly Islands is now 200 times its former size thanks to China’s land reclamation activities in the South China Sea, reports the UK-based Jane’s Defence Weekly.
A Jan. 14 satellite image provided by Airbus Defence & Space shows a 75,000-square-meter reclaimed island and a large facility under construction at the reef, called Dongmen Reef in Chinese. This makes the land area approximately 200 times what it was 10 years ago, when compared to a DigitalGlobe image caught on Feb. 1, 2004 that showed the 380-square-meter concrete platform before construction began.
Other reefs have also been subject to reclamation. A recent satellite image of Johnson South Reef (Chigua Reef in Chinese), which is located 30 km southwest of Hughes Reef, shows major construction underway.
Full article: Reclamation by China makes Hughes Reef 200 times former size (Want China Times)
