In the East Asian-Southeast Asian region, China, Vietnam, and Japan are currently recognized as countries with more experience in "planting islands".
Especially in Japan, in terms of the time to start, it is the earliest one, which can be called the former "reclamation professional household".
As early as 1987, more than 30 years ago, Japan set its sights on several rocks called Okinotori Reef. The area of the reef began to be constantly increased, trying to expand it into a full-fledged island.
Here, it is necessary to first popularize the difference between islands and reefs.
Many online articles say that the difference between them lies in whether they have a water source or human living conditions. But in fact, according to international practice, the main difference between the two is to look at the area - the territory is large, basically exposed on the sea, usually recognized as an island; The kind of large rocks that are submerged by the sea at high tide and emerge at low tide are reefs. The part of the big rock that is not underwater is also called a reef.
It's just that, before the 1980s, these islands and reefs in the ocean seemed to be worthless, but since then they have been scrambling with all countries, but all countries with some conditions are trying to expand the reef and turn it into an island?
It turned out that in 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was born, which extended the territorial sea of a country to 12 nautical miles, and at the same time proposed a 350-nautical-mile "continental shelf" and a "200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone". It also stipulates that the entire exclusive economic zone is under the sovereign jurisdiction of the country to which it belongs.
Thus, according to the logic of many countries, it seems that as long as those nameless small reefs are taken and expanded into "islands", they can be applied to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and declare a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and a "200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone".
However, building islands in the ocean is not something that any country can do, and the technical threshold is extremely high, and it is quite a money-burner.
At present, most of the artificial islands "planted" by countries around the world are in two situations:
One is to build islands in the coastal areas of cities where land is scarce to increase urban development space, or to build deep-water ports, airports and other transportation facilities. Most of them are located in economically developed coastal shallow waters, which are convenient for construction, and the political and diplomatic influence is almost negligible.
For example, the location where I wrote this article is a piece of land created by land reclamation in Bohai Bay, which is said to have been shrimp ponds.
And the second type belongs to the situation mentioned above - "planting" islands in the sea far from the mainland.
On the one hand, it may face international pressure under the "planting" of such islands; On the other hand, it is very, very expensive. The overall cost of an ocean-going island is comparable to that of an aircraft carrier fleet, and few countries in the world are capable of handling it.
Moreover, if you consider the short-term economic returns, it can be said that the above is completely a money-throwing job. However, if we look at it from the perspective of political and strategic interests, it can definitely be regarded as a "great plan for the future".
For example, at the beginning, it was said that the Japanese had been tossing around Okinotori Reef for more than 30 years.
Depending on its geographical location, it is between our first and second island chains, and it is surrounded by large offshore oil fields.
However, although the Japanese economy at that time was very good, there was no shortage of money at all, and the technology was also very good, but it was still not easy to turn Okinotori Reef into an island.
First of all, it's too far from mainland Japan, 1,730-1,740 kilometers.
In addition, this so-called "reef" is too small and too small.
In 1968, the United States and Japan signed the Ogasawara Return Agreement, handing over the Ogasawara Islands, which had been under international "trusteeship" after World War II, to Japan. This includes six "big rocks" not far away, the so-called Okinotori Reef.
Since the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea had not yet been born, there was no such thing as an "exclusive economic zone" of 200 nautical miles. Therefore, the Japanese government once did not reassure it... It was not until the mid-80s of the last century, when the Japanese decided to "take advantage" in the past, that they were embarrassed to find that due to the rise in sea level and the erosion of sea water, almost two of the original six large stones were still visible, and the area barely exposed at high tide was not much larger than a double bed.
Seeing this, the Japanese were in a hurry, and since 1987, they have spent a lot of money to build a ring-shaped breakwater here, and at the same time poured a large amount of cement around these two precious stones to build a helicopter take-off and landing platform.
In order to hide people's eyes, the Japanese government has built an unmanned observation post on the island, claiming to carry out scientific research activities on it, which is purely civil in nature and aims to benefit "all mankind".
However, due to the big movement, the move was firmly opposed by China and South Korea, and there was some international pressure.
This is because Okinotori Reef is not within Japan's territorial waters. It is also unclear who claims these large rocks and the nearby Ogasawara Islands.
The 1968 U.S.-Japan Agreement on the Return of Ogasawara described this "transfer" as similar to the 1972 U.S.-Japan Agreement on the Return of the Ryukyu Islands, in that it only gave Japan "jurisdiction" rather than sovereignty.
Then, since it was not possible to make a big deal of fanfare, the Japanese changed their strategy and decided to use the "magic of nature", that is, the "Coral Project".
They collected more than 300,000 polyp eggs and transported them to Okinawa for culture, where they grew one centimeter a year. Three years later, Japanese scientists planted the corals on Okinotori Reef.
According to this logic, coral is something that grows naturally, and there is nothing wrong with reinforcing Okinotori Reef through its continuous growth, right?
However, the plan could not catch up with the changes, and these natural corals encountered an equally natural "demolition brigade" - starfish.
It is said that a starfish can eat two square meters of coral in a day.
The water conditions near Okinotori Reef are just right for starfish breeding.
As a result, after a few years, the coral colonies that had begun to bear some fruit were gnawed by starfish.
In this regard, the Japanese side has tried to dump the blame on China, saying that there are Chinese scientific research vessels and fishing boats, and they have specially released a kind of "crown of thorn starfish" that eats a lot of food.
About this pot, we don't carry it. As mentioned earlier, the waters around Okinotori Reef are originally very suitable for the survival and breeding of starfish, and it is normal for people to run over by themselves in accordance with the destiny of heaven.
In the end, the Japanese had to abandon the "coral plan" and return to tradition, using reinforced concrete to make legs and build "stilt houses" to guard them. Moreover, the "legs" of these stilt houses must also be built very high, all of which are more than 8 meters.
Because Okinotori Reef is located in the typhoon zone, the wave height can be as high as more than 10 meters when a strong typhoon passes over the surface of the ocean. If the stilt house is not high enough, it will be directly knocked away by the huge waves.
Speaking of which, it is clear that the Japanese tossing Okinotori Reef is an act of putting the cart before the horse—they are trying to take the surrounding waters into their pockets by "referring to the reef as an island".
In reality, however, Japan does not have sovereignty over Okinotori Reef.
According to the supplementary provisions of Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation:
"The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out, and the sovereignty of Japan shall be limited to Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and such other islands as we may determine."
In other words, with the exception of the four major islands on the mainland and the adjacent islands, Japan's sovereignty claims over the islands in the open sea are all illegal.
In contrast, our Chinese reclamation and island building is a dignified and upright act - building islands within the scope of its own sovereignty, no matter how to build infrastructure, it has not gone out of the "nine-dash line" in the South China Sea, which is entirely our Chinese's own business, and outsiders are not qualified to point fingers.
Finally, we have to talk about the South China Sea.
For a long time, due to the limited naval and air forces of our sea, the South China Sea was too far away from Chinese mainland, and there was a lack of supply along the way, which made the military level of the mainland's islands and reefs in the South China Sea often in a vacuum during that time.
It was not until the Battle of Xisha in 1974 and the Battle of Nansha in 1988 that we finally gained some key foothold in the South China Sea.
Most of these footholds are reefs that are completely unsuitable for survival and have a very small surface of the sea.
For example, this is Fiery Cross Reef in 1988, and at high tide only 30 centimeters above the water, the surface is so small that only four people can barely stand.
However, our army began to hold on to the islands and reefs in the South China Sea for a long time in an unimaginably harsh environment.
In the beginning, our stilt house was a simple shack.
These shacks were later converted into tin houses. The space is a bit larger, but the iron material is scorched by the sun, and the environment in the house is very difficult.
At the same time, the warriors had to endure a poor diet, sea breeze and humid conditions, and their feet were constantly soaked in water. They all have skin diseases to varying degrees.
And what is even more difficult is this lonely environment far from the world, once even the military dog was suffocated and jumped into the sea impulsively.
However, the islands and reefs in the South China Sea are now so new.
Throughout history, what country has been able to have the large-scale equipment, mature technology, tireless construction team, and invincible military defense force required for these offshore reclamation at the same time...
I have to admit that it was indeed a "great wisdom" to focus on economic development.