China’s Massive New Artificial Island In The South China Sea Emerges, Primed For Militarization
https://www.twz.com/news-features/chinas-massive-new-artificial-island-in-the-south-china-sea-emerges-primed-for-militarizationOpen linkView original on lemmy.ca
12 replies
That's quite the loophole for international maritime border law: building an artificial island to automatically boost your maritime extension
Sounds like not a loophole, but just an outright violation
Why would be the new island the property of the builder if it's in international water?
If the island is found (or in this case, built) within territorial waters but far enough from the mainland's coast, the island's coast recursively extends the claim of territorial waters per international law.
I thought man made was exempt from this
It's not man-made. It's an atoll that they've expanded.
Huh, today I learned the atoll was already there and was just being expanded. Makes sense that they patched out the legal loophole too, at least partially.
It's the way they said built in the previous comment shrug. It's 4am you know damn well I only skimmed the article
Wait, this was a reef? Like a coral reef? They built a military base by smothering a coral reef?
That's insane. I wish big superpowers would do this sort of thing to help island nations that are disappearing due to their historic pollution.
Instead we only do this for the military, which is responsible for enormous emissions causing sea level rise :(
Oof
Uhh, I thought sea levels were rising. What is this paradox?