South China Sea: Beijing opens hotpot restaurant on Woody Island in disputed Paracels chain
- The restaurant opened for business last week and can seat 120 at one go, the local government says
- Move marks latest soft push from Beijing to consolidate its claims in strategically important waters
It marks the latest soft push from Beijing to consolidate its claims in the busy, strategically important waterway, most of which it claims under what it calls its historical “nine-dash line”.
Woody Island, known as Yongxing in China, is the largest outcrop in the group of about 30 islands making up the Paracels. Called Xisha in Chinese, the archipelago is controlled by Beijing but also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
The Kuanzhai Xiangzi hotpot restaurant – capable of seating 120 diners at one go – opened for business last week, the Sansha city government said. The government, headquartered on Woody Island, administers both the Paracels and the also hotly contested Spratly island chain, which China calls the Nansha Islands.
The deputy manager of a logistics company on Sansha welcomed the opening of the restaurant featuring one of China’s most popular culinary traditions.
It would “enrich the material and cultural life of the military, police and people on the island”, Wang Panpan told local broadcaster Hainan TV.