Five coral reefs located in the open sea south of Japan have been named “Okinotorishima” by Japan, which plans to build an island around these reefs.
Japan's goal is to turn these reefs into islands to expand its maritime rights, including territorial waters and exclusive economic zones, which could pose a serious security threat to China, especially if Japan establishes military bases on these islands.
In response, China took action and filed a lawsuit against Japan’s island-building activities with the United Nations.
However, this lawsuit ended with China losing the case.
Surprisingly, this outcome gave China a strategy it could implement, which made both the U.S. and Japan quite displeased.
Why did China file a lawsuit with the United Nations? And how did it use this situation to develop its own strategy?
The question of whether Okinotorishima is a reef or an island has been debated by the international community since the last century.
Entering the 21st century, this debate has intensified, with Japan consistently claiming that Okinotorishima is an island, even though it is composed of five uninhabited coral reefs.
According to international law, the 200 nautical miles of waters surrounding an island can be considered that country’s exclusive economic zone and can even extend to a continental shelf of 300 nautical miles.
If Okinotorishima were recognized as an island, Japan would gain greater advantages in ocean development, scientific research, and control over marine resources.
Even though Okinotorishima is located in the open sea and was not originally owned by Japan, it has become a key target of Japan’s ambitions.
In the 16th century, Okinotorishima was first discovered by a Spanish navigator, but it was not given much attention at the time.
After changing hands several times, Japan briefly controlled Okinotorishima following the end of World War I, but after World War II, when Japan lost its overseas territories, the U.S. took over Okinotorishima.
It wasn’t until 1968 that the U.S. returned Okinotorishima to Japan.
Since then, Japan gradually realized Okinotorishima’s strategic importance, especially as it plays a key role in the route China uses to enter the Pacific Ocean through the East China Sea.
Therefore, since 1987, Japan has been pouring significant amounts of money into trying to transform the reef into a real island by encircling it and building around it.
Naturally, China couldn’t ignore Japan’s disregard for international rules.
In 2008, China officially filed a lawsuit with the United Nations opposing Japan’s island-building plans.
Japan then submitted a proposal to the United Nations, claiming Okinotorishima as an island and requesting that the 700,000 square kilometers of surrounding waters be recognized as part of Japan’s extended continental shelf.
However, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an island must have conditions suitable for human habitation, and Okinotorishima, which only has a small area exposed during high tide with a highest point of just 1.5 meters, is not habitable.
With the joint protests of China and South Korea, the United Nations, after four years of review, postponed the examination of Japan’s proposal, neither explicitly opposing Japan’s actions nor supporting its position.
On the surface, it appeared that China had lost the lawsuit, but in reality, China was waiting to implement a bigger plan.
Since Japan could build an island around a reef, China could naturally carry out legal land reclamation and island-building projects in the South China Sea.
In 2012, China officially began this plan, and unlike Japan’s illegal actions on Okinotorishima, China’s island-building was entirely legal and conducted within its own territorial waters.
For example, Yongshu Island in the Spratly Islands was initially just a submerged reef, but with large-scale land reclamation in 2014, it gradually became an artificial island.
China deployed multiple dredgers, which extracted sand from the seabed and blew it onto the target area, rapidly completing the island-building project.
This highly efficient island-building technology allowed China to expand Yongshu Island to 2.8 square kilometers in just eight months, building infrastructure such as airports, ports, and hospitals.
China not only built artificial islands on Yongshu Island but also constructed several other islands and reefs in the Spratly Islands.
Among these, Yongshu Island, Zhubi Reef, and Meiji Reef are referred to as China’s “unsinkable aircraft carriers,” located in the core waters of the South China Sea and controlling key shipping routes.
China has established a multi-layered defense system on these islands, significantly enhancing its military defense capabilities in the South China Sea and effectively responding to potential external threats.
The U.S. and its allies have expressed strong dissatisfaction with China’s actions, but China responded to these accusations with a simple reason: China is building islands within its own territorial waters, while Japan had carried out similar activities on the high seas without facing international opposition.
Compared to China’s smooth progress, Japan’s island-building efforts have been repeatedly frustrated.
Due to limited construction capacity, Japan’s progress has been very slow.
To make up for the lack of progress, Japan tried to expand the island’s area through “coral reef island-building” by relying on the natural growth of coral.
However, the sudden outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish, a natural enemy of coral, in the waters near Okinotorishima completely destroyed Japan’s island-building plans.
As a result, Japan’s “island dream” has yet to be realized, while China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea continue to take shape.
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