China starts operating lighthouse on artificial island in disputed South China Sea
The 55-metre-tall facility on Subi Reef will provide navigation services to ships
China has begun operating a lighthouse on one of its artificial islands in the South China Sea near which a US warship sailed last year to challenge Beijing’s territorial claims.
China claims most of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, through which about US$5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, but neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
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China’s transport ministry held a “completion ceremony”, marking the start of operations at the 55-metre-high lighthouse on Subi Reef, where construction began in October, the state news agency Xinhua said late on Tuesday.
The United States’ guided missile destroyer USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef in late October, drawing an angry rebuke from China, which called it extremely irresponsible.
Subi Reef is an artificial island built up by China over the past year or so.
Before Chinese dredging turned it into an island, Subi Reef was submerged at high tide. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 12-nautical mile limits cannot be set around man-made islands built on previously submerged reefs.