China will push through with its plan to build an island city on Woody Island and two smaller neighboring islets in the contested South China Sea waters, South China Morning Post said in a report.
“We need to carefully plan the overall development of the islands and reefs based on their different functions, taking into account their complementary relationship,” said Zhang Jun, Communist Party secretary of Sansha, China’s southernmost territory.
Sansha, which is part of Hainan province, was established in 2012 with the aim of transforming Woody Island and two smaller islets into a “national key strategic service and logistics base.”
The Philippines does not have any claim on Woody Island, which is being contested by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
The developments in Woody Island, however, serves as Beijing’s blueprint for future military projects in other Chinese-occupied islands in the South China Sea.