PLAN South Seas Fleet and Bases

Originally Posted by plawolf

I think you might have the wrong emphasis on point 3. The Diaoyu islands are uninhabited excepted for some wild goats, yet no one disputes that they would grant the owners an EEZ, the dispute is on who actually owns the islands. Same thing with Scarborough Shoal, only there aren't even goats there.

I think the 3rd point is a definition of what would be considered a rock, as opposed to an island. An island would grant EEZ status to the owning country regardless of whether it is inhabited of not, whereas a rock that "cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf".

Remember if we are talking about the terms only,

the clause say an island CAN sustain human life, it doesn't mean that there must be human life there.

So technically, any rock/island which you can build a shelter on and have some fisherman use it as their base, then it is for all intent and purposes an island. Now, do you need the shelter and the fishing boat to built with local material on the "island" to satisfy the sustain human life part is open to debate.

What's going on with this small island in the Paracel Islands? It's 219 meters long and 108 meters wide. It looks like they're dredging out the middle of it which is the opposite of what China is doing on most islands, expanding them and dredging out only a small canal in the surrounding reef for ships to reach land. This picture, like most of the Paracel and Spratly Islands, is from 2005. I would love to get recent photographs of all the islands!

Paracel Islands.jpg

Originally Posted by Geographer

What's going on with this small island in the Paracel Islands? It's 219 meters long and 108 meters wide. It looks like they're dredging out the middle of it which is the opposite of what China is doing on most islands, expanding them and dredging out only a small canal in the surrounding reef for ships to reach land. This picture, like most of the Paracel and Spratly Islands, is from 2005. I would love to get recent photographs of all the islands!

Guessing shelter for fishing boats?

You mean like when the fisherman dock within the ring of land they are considered on Chinese territory?

Originally Posted by no_name

You mean like when the fisherman dock within the ring of land they are considered on Chinese territory?

I guess but I was simply thinking more along the lines of providing shelters scattered across the islands to enable a fishing fleet presence even during storm season as the boats can ride out a storm in a protected enclosure.

Here are some pictures I've collected of Woody Island, aka Yongxing Island, off the internet.

Paracel Islands - Woody Island.jpegParacel Islands - Woody Island2.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island7.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island10.jpegParacel Islands - Woody Island11.jpg

Here are some more pictures of Woody Island.

Paracel Islands - Woody Island14.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island15.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island16.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island17.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island26 Shi Island.jpeg

More pictures of Woody Island.

Paracel Islands - Woody Island27.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island33.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island37.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island47.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island48.jpg

And more pictures of Woody Island. This board only allows five pictures per post.

Paracel Islands - Woody Island50 Japanese turret.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island51 French building.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island52.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island54.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island55.jpg

Last set of Woody Island pictures!

Paracel Islands - Woody Island57.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island58.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island59.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island63.jpgParacel Islands - Woody Island64.jpg

Google Earth has a beautiful new image of Sanya naval base from June 27, 2012.

Among the chances from 2011:
- some large buildings have gone up on the hill just south of the main base
- the windy road on the southern-most part of the peninsula has now been paved over
- more construction along the eastern beach
- a few new buildings in the main base area of the peninsula
- construction has finished on the southern-most pier
- there are two ~92 meter subs and 1 ~120 meter sub docked at the southern piers
- there are two ~106 meter destroyers docked at the northern piers
- there appears to be new construction for a wall in the hills to the north of the base
- there's a good shot of the huge tunnel opening on the southern peninsula looking into the bay

sanya submarine base4 June 2012.jpgsanya submarine base4 june 2012 submarines.jpg

What other changes do you all notice?

The most significant change is the completion of the fourth submarine pier - meaning that the present complement of one JIN and two SHANG is not the end state, if any thought so.

It is a pity that the cove south of the old Yulin base has not been updated. All you see of the carrier home port area is the breakwater extending west from Cape Jinmujiao, at 18 10 19 N 109 33 00 E (with a lot of interesting Panoramio pictures), but that was way back on 2010.

The two surface combatants at Pier 1 are two Type 053H3 JIANGWEI II class frigates.

franco-russe, why do you say Yulin will be the homeport of the carrier? Another poster speculated that a naval base at 35 43 N and 120 00 E is the future homeport of the carrier because they are building a huge pier there. This the base I'm talking about:

naval base.jpg

That other blogger was also me.

The base you show here is the Xiaokouzi carrier homeport near Qingdao-Jiaonan in the North Sea Fleet.

The other at Cape Jinmujiao is practically identical. They were both started in 2010.

You should think BIG! LIAONING will no doubt be based at Xiakouzi. Two Type 002 will be likely be split between Jiaonan-Xiaokouzi and Yulin-Jinmujiao. Best guess (Taiwan's) is that they will be completed 2020 and 2022.