Zheng Heping, deputy head of the Maritime Safety Administration, said the automatic identification system and other equipment inside the lighthouse can provide efficient navigation services to ships, such as positioning reference, route guidance and navigation safety information.
Advertisement
China’s Ministry of Transport held a completion ceremony for the construction of a lighthouse on Zhubi Reef, marking the start of its operation, state media reported today.
Its claims overlap with those of Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan, which China does not acknowledge as a sovereign nation.
China has turned Subi Reef-known as Kagitingan Reef in the Philippines-into an artificial island in the past year, satellite photos have shown, reclaiming almost 400 hectares of land.
Beijing on Tuesday claimed the lighthouse on Zamora Reef was for business purposes and would serve all countries within and outside the region.
Construction on the lighthouse, which has a lantern with a diameter of 4.5 meters and rotating lights, began last October.
The lighthouse emits white light in the nighttime, with a range of 22 nautical miles and a glow cycle of five seconds.
Before Subi was converted into an island, it submerged at high tide.
To the north, in the East China Sea, Japan has begun repositioning military units to its far-flung holdings in the Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China.
Xinhua reported past year that China will build two 50-meter-tall lighthouses on the Cuarteron and Johnson South reefs in the Spratly islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines.
“As an archipelagic state, the Philippines is firmly committed to building a rules-based maritime security architecture”, Manalo said, adding that the country had actively engaged in implementing the provisions of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in South China Sea and in facilitating discussions on an effective Code of Conduct in the territory.
However, high traffic density, complex navigation conditions, and a severe lack of emergency aid and response forces, have hindered economic and social development in the region.
Citing an obligation to uphold freedom of navigation, Washington previous year sent the USS Lassen to sail past Subi Reef, a move that angered Beijing.
Advertisement
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expected to personally oversee some of the exercises, his presence in the region meant to “reaffirm that the relationship that we have with the Philippines is rock solid and we’re side by side”, according to U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. John Toolan.
