Vietnam creates artificial islands to counter China

14 October, 2024 An artificial island created to house a garrison of the Vietnamese military. Photo: Planet Labs The Vietnamese Armed Forces are building a network of artificial islands to counter China's Armed Forces.

A study was conducted by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) using satellite imagery. As noted in the WSJ, Vietnam is rapidly expanding artificial islands where it plans to deploy military aircraft, anti-ship systems, and air defense systems. Most of these islands are being created on disputed Spratly Islands, and the satellite images of the area show a tenfold increase in the number of islands over the past three years.

Island expansion between 2020 and 2024 in the Spratly Islands archipelago.

Photo credits: Planet Labs

The expansion and creation of new artificial islands by Vietnam involves the construction of harbors, defensive trenches, and the potentially lengthened runways for military use. These moves to reinforce the area are similar to those of China, which has also built artificial islands equipped with observation towers, runways, and other military infrastructure to demonstrate its presence and power in the region. As part of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative held in June 2024, it was announced that Vietnam had added 2.8 square kilometers to its holdings at ten sites since November 2023, bringing the total area of dredging and dumping in the South China Sea to approximately 9.5 square kilometers.

For its part, as part of the work, China managed to appropriate an additional 18.8 square kilometers, where the military facilities, including the airfields for combat aircraft, were built.

A water cannon attack on a Philippine vessel. Photo credits: Philippine Coast Guard

Islands in the Spratly archipelago are disputed between Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, but China is the most active in trying to seize the largest part. For this reason, some countries with the territorial claims are now uniting to resist the Chinese pressure, which has the largest navy and coast guard in the world and the region.

The WSJ notes that China has not yet commented on the Vietnam's activities, which may indicate a more important direction of confrontation with the Philippines over the Thomas Shoal.

Militarnyi previously reported that the Philippine Coast Guard would maintain its presence in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, despite the China's demands and provocations.