China may be building airstrip on reef in disputed sea, warns Philippines

The Philippines warned today that China may be building an airstrip on a reef in the South China Sea, as the Asian superpower asserts its claim to most of the strategic area.

Filipino military surveillance aircraft have been documenting large-scale earthmoving activity on Chinese-held Johnson South Reef since January, the defence department said.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters the Philippines had filed a diplomatic protest against China's reclamation works on the reef last month, but Beijing rejected it on grounds the reef is part of Chinese territory.

Asked if China was building an airstrip on the reef, also claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam, del Rosario said: "That's one possibility".

"On 04 April 2014, the Philippines protested Chinese reclamation on Mabini (Johnson) Reef. The Chinese side rejected the protest," a foreign department statement said.

China had earlier built structures on the reef after seizing it and other outcrops from Vietnam in a deadly 1988 skirmish.

"We can confirm that there is ongoing reclamation or earthmoving activities in that portion," Filipino defence department spokesman Peter Galvez told reporters.

"Is that a possible airfield? We cannot speculate at this point," Galvez said.

"It has been getting bigger and bigger," he added.

The Chinese embassy in Manila could not be reached for comment today.

Last week, the Chinese press downplayed the reef reclamation and construction.

Quoting an unnamed source described as close to the construction, the Global Times reported China was merely "renovating the living facilities for troops stationed on the reef".

The Philippines calls the outcrop the Mabini Reef, while China calls it Chigua Reef. Internationally, it is recognised as the Johnson South Reef.

It is part of the Spratly chain, and is located about 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of the large western Philippine island of Palawan.

It is not the first time the Philippines has made allegations against China over construction at disputed outcrops in the South China Sea.

In September last year, Manila accused Beijing of laying concrete blocks on disputed Scarborough Shoal that it said could be a "prelude to construction".

However, in an embarrassing about-face, Manila dropped the allegations weeks later after concluding that the concrete blocks were previously-existing structures.