In the past 18 months, China has been enthusiastically dredging sand from the bottom of the South China Sea and building artificial islands in disputed waters. During that period, according to Ashton Carter, US secretary of defence, Beijing has reclaimed more land than all the other claimants put together over the history of the dispute. True, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan have all built islands to bolster their territorial claims. Yet Beijing’s actions dwarf those efforts in both speed and scale.
过去18个月,manbetx3.0 一直在南manbetx3.0 海争议水域热火朝天地抽沙建造人工岛。根据美国国防部长阿什顿•卡特(Ashton Carter)的说法,这一时期manbetx3.0 填海造地的面积,超过了其他所有声索国自有争端以来造岛面积的总和。越南、菲律宾、马来西亚和台湾确实都曾人工造岛,以支持它们的领土主张。然而,与manbetx3.0 政府的行为相比,它们的举动不论在速度上还是规模上都相形见绌。