Full coverage: The South China Sea Issue

For years, the Philippines and Vietnam have built infrastructures on islands and reefs or even artificial islands in the South China Sea, in an attempt to consolidate illegal occupation.

A report released in May by the US Center for Strategic and International Studies' Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said that satellite photos showed at least 10 sites of Vietnamese construction throughout the region. Over the years, the Philippines has continuously built and expanded facilities on illegally seized islands and reefs, as well as deployed military forces on them.

Vietnam started to reclaim land from the sea on illegally seized islands in the South China Sea as early as 1980s and 1990s. Vietnam has built on slightly more than 49 hectares of land mainly in Nanwei Dao, Xi Jiao and Jinghong Dao. Most of the construction work was carried out in the past two years. Currently, Vietnam has reclaimed land from the sea on more than 20 South China Sea islands and reefs.