Picture millions of tons of sand, islands appearing almost overnight, and political rivals gritting their teeth: for over a decade, China’s artificial island-building in Southeast Asia has captivated, astonished, and alarmed onlookers around the globe. Is this the boldest—and most hotly contested—ocean transformation ever witnessed?
How China’s artificial islands sprang from the sea
It all began in late 2013, when China kicked off an unprecedented operation: pouring endless quantities of sand into the South China Sea. The campaign focused on the Nansha and Xisha archipelagos—better known to the rest of the world as the Spratly and Paracel Islands. Between December 2013 and June 2015, China completed the first major phase of its ambitious land reclamation project. The results were staggering: according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, in less than 20 months, over 4.6 square miles (12 square kilometers) of brand-new, man-made land appeared—seventeen times more territory
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