China expanding land area of another South China Sea islet
Taipei, March 7 (CNA) China is carrying out a landfill project to increase the size of Qilianyu in the Paracel (Xisha) Islands and then build a bridge linking it to the PRC-occupied Woody (Yongxing) Island, a Hong Kong media reported Monday.
The Qilianyu sub-group of the Paracels is composed of North Island, Middle Island, South Island, North Sand, Middle Sand, South Sand and Zhaoshu Island.
A land-reclamation project is currently proceeding between the North and South Island, according to an online report of Ta Kung Pao.
When the project is completed, an airport will be built on one of the expanded island whose size will be larger than that of Yongxing Island, Ta Kung Pao said.
Yongxing, originally with an land area of 2.13 square km, has been expanded to over 3 square km through a land reclamation project.
Under PRC control, it is administered by the Yongxingdao Neighborhood Committee and is the seat of Sansha, a prefecture-level city of Hainan province.
Qilianyu, with a land size of 1.32 square km, will be expanded to 15 square km, enough to build a aircraft runway, said Ta Kung Pao.
In noted that Shansha City began work on linking up Qilian's North, Middle and South islands in May, 2014 and an artificial landmass now joins North and Middle islands. A large-scale land claiming project is being planned for the western part of the platform between Zhaoshu Island and West Sand.
A group of Shansha City officials visited Qilianyu Feb. 19 to study the ecology, natural scenery, transportation and other aspects related to developing the area, according to an earlier report of Hainan Daily.
The Chinese authorities plan to enlarge the reef platform, which now covers an area of 21 square km. The population on the area has exceeded 200, mostly on Zhaoshu Island.
According to a report last September, China has obtained 2,900 acres of land through landfill projects on seven of eight South China Sea islands that it controls over the past two years, and build three airports and other infrastructures on three of them, including a 3,000-meter airstrip on the Fiery Cross Island.