<story><title>China&apos;s Island Factory – New islands being made in disputed China Sea</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8701/index.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>veidr</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve watched with fascination as the Japanese Senkaku islands slowly and gradually came to be labeled &amp;#x27;disputed&amp;#x27; in the western media, after China&amp;#x27;s recent claims.&lt;p&gt;It seems like China has figured out a way to hack the media (the free media outside of China, I mean -- the government there obviously has root on Chinese TV and newspapers).&lt;p&gt;Japanese ownership of this territory is basically as settled under international law as anything of this nature can be; the islands have been held by Japan since the 1800s, then controlled by the USA for a time after it defeated Japan in WWII, and eventually returned to Japan along with the return of Okinawa.[1]&lt;p&gt;But after China&amp;#x27;s slow and steady media campaign, it has somehow become widely reported as &amp;#x27;disputed territory&amp;#x27;. (Which it is in a meaningless and pedantic sense only.)&lt;p&gt;This island-building is another hack, and maybe a clever one. Killing 70 Vietnamese soldiers in the military action in the 1980s to seize a submerged reef didn&amp;#x27;t make China look good at all.&lt;p&gt;But perhaps by building new &amp;#x27;islands&amp;#x27; to buttress its aggressive and expansionist claims to the territorial waters of other nations, we may end up seeing the western media in ten years uncritically reporting that &amp;quot;China, which has 9 islands in the disputed waters, insists that it is merely defending its territory...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Which is very important, because none of the countries whose territories China is going after -- not even Japan -- would do well in a straight up military conflict. The Philippines only hope is American protection. So the way China&amp;#x27;s aggression is covered in the western media is actually very important.&lt;p&gt;Interesting times.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;http://csis.org/publication/japan-chair-platform-senkaku-islands-and-international-law&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;csis.org&amp;#x2F;publication&amp;#x2F;japan-chair-platform-senkaku-isl...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>China&apos;s Island Factory – New islands being made in disputed China Sea</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8701/index.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>adventured</author><text>Every time I see discussion about the nine dash line, I can&amp;#x27;t help but wonder how it can seem sane to anybody that China should have the water rights to an area ~600 km south of what is blatantly Vietnam&amp;#x27;s coastal waters (and the southern tip of their land) and just barely north of Malaysia&amp;#x27;s physical territory.&lt;p&gt;I know the correct answer is: China doesn&amp;#x27;t care, and isn&amp;#x27;t concerned with reason when it comes to the nine dash line. It still boggles my mind.&lt;p&gt;There is no valid Chinese claim on those waters, there is only who has the military power to dictate terms.</text></comment>