The Guardian reports that China is extending its military capabilities in the South China Sea by filling in and extending Fiery Cross Reef so that it includes a landing strip capable of taking fighter jets and surveillance aircraft. Barrack Obama has expressed the usual concerns about Beijing “using its sheer size and muscle to force countries into subordinate positions,” saying: “Just because the Philippines or Vietnam are not as large as China doesn’t mean that they can just be elbowed aside.” John McCain says China is being aggressive, claiming "when any nation fills in 600 acres of land and builds runways and most likely is putting in other kinds of military capabilities in what is international waters, it is clearly a threat to where the world’s economy is going, has gone, and will remain for the foreseeable future.” 

Yet it is not the PRC, but Taiwan, that occupies the largest of the Spratly Islands. Taiping Island, or Itu Aba, which was claimed by the ROC under the 1947 Constitution, has always been the most highly militarised island in the archipelago. It has regularly hosted large-scale military exercises, features a 1,150-metre runway that can take C-130 military transports and Taiwan plans to extend the runway  to 1,500 metres. US$106.5 million has also been earmarked to build a dock for large ROC Navy ships. The island also features a 7-metre-high tactical air navigation facility, anti-aircraft batteries and mortar units.

The problem for the US here is that it needs Taipei to continue to occupy Taiping as part of its strategy to prevent Beijing from extending its military reach to the Nine Dash Line and so that it can continue to fly surveillance missions along the Chinese coast. However, despite beefing up its military presence in the Spratlys, Taipei is cosying up to Beijing economically and culturally while maintaining its status as the ROC. This must present the US with a dilemma. It was the ROC that created the so-called Nine Dash Line that Beijing repeatedly invokes and Taipei has always maintained its claim to sovereignty over the whole of the South China Sea. Yet this ROC claim might end up creating a further intractable conundrum,conflicting with Taiwanese nationalist sentiment in Taiwan itself.