In May 2022, U.S. satellite monitoring showed a series of images near the South China Sea showing Vietnam's giant ships surrounding a small island and workers busy wearing cloaks, drawing widespread attention. These boats and workers are working on an important goal: reclamation of the sea.
However, the move raises questions about why Vietnam is using its arms in the South China Sea to emulate China's reclamation of islands.
China began reclamation in the South China Sea a decade ago, building not only a large number of artificial islands, but also military installations such as military airfields and missile bases on these islands. These military installations enhance China's military presence in the South China Sea and create conditions for China's future recovery of occupied features and reefs.
So why did Vietnam suddenly decide to copy China's work? Does Vietnam have enough strength to challenge China in the South China Sea?
To understand all this, we first need to look back at China's reclamation process.
China delimited its boundaries in the South China Sea as early as the Republican period, and it was recognized by most countries. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, some Western countries began to adopt double standards, encouraging the Philippines, Malaysia and other countries to invade and occupy islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
At the same time, the United States has promoted the so-called undetermined sovereignty of the South China Sea internationally, creating a dilemma for China. Because the Chinese navy was not strong at that time, it was difficult to effectively defend the South China Sea region, and China's territory was invaded to a certain extent.
Vietnam has also been actively involved, encroaching on 29 features in the South China Sea for decades. Despite repeated diplomatic attempts by the Chinese government to reclaim the seized features, Vietnam insists they are its territory.
In order to effectively reclaim sovereignty and avoid bloodshed, China began to consider the method of reclamation and island reclamation in the 90s, but this idea was not widely favored at that time. It was suspected that filling a small reef into a solid artificial island would require a state of the art beyond the time.
However, China has continued to improve its technology, spending nearly 20 years successfully building large suction dredgers, such as the Tiankun launched in 2017. The ship can dig 6,000 cubic meters of sediment per hour, which has become a weapon for China's island reclamation project.
China has also studied various methods of reclamation and has opted for sandblowing sand to reclaim islands, although this requires high technology. Although this method is efficient, the technical threshold is also high. However, China's engineering team has gradually mastered the technology through continuous improvement.
At the same time, Vietnam wants to follow China's approach of blowing sand and reclaiming islands, but faces technical and equipment challenges. Almost no other country is willing to export equipment such as China's large suction dredger Tiankun.
As a result, Vietnam had to use traditional methods of dredging sand and reclaiming islands, involving tens of thousands of workers and thousands of soldiers, but progress was slow. Vietnam, for example, spent five years reclaiming islands and eventually reclaimed only 0.242 square kilometers of land. This speed is nowhere near comparable to China's.
Vietnam's reclamation projects are also more focused on military use, but due to the reliance on manpower and excavators, reclamation of many islands and reefs has been slow and military installations cannot be deployed quickly.
Vietnam is also trying to use external forces to challenge China, working closely with the United States, Japan and other countries to bring in foreign ships and increase tensions in the South China Sea to contain China. However, China's reclamation project has still been so successful that Vietnam's strategy has been ineffective.
China has long been precautionary against the actions of neighboring countries. China has selectively built a number of islands and reefs to form a defensive belt at sea that acts as a shield for each other. While this slows down the rate of reclamation, China expands its de facto control with each artificial island.
In the face of provocations from Vietnam and other countries, China has adopted diplomatic means and actively launched diplomatic offensives with ASEAN countries. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently visited Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia to discuss the South China Sea issue. These diplomatic efforts are: