[...]Whitsun Reef sits at the centre of a triangle of China’s Spratly Islands fortresses, formed by Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs.
Proposed airport near Pingtan Island would cost US$463 million
By Martin Greene, Taiwan News, Staff Writer 2021/08/18 16:21
Pingtan, China (Wikimedia Commons photo)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Beijing is planning to build an airport on land reclaimed from the sea near Pingtan Island, the closest part of China to the main island of Taiwan.
Plans for the airport, which is set to be built off the east coast of Pingtan, between Dasha and Xiaosha islets, came to light through documents released by the authorities in China’s Fujian Province, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Pingtan has since 2013 been part of a pilot free-trade zone meant to help deepen economic ties with Taiwan, and Beijing has spent hundreds of billions of RMB on infrastructure in and around Pingtan related to economic integration. While the airport has been announced in relation to such plans, the extent to which it will be used for military purposes has not been made public.
The airport is set to cost roughly RMB$3 billion (US$463 million) and will serve as a “major aviation and logistics hub with access to Taiwan,” per SCMP. It comes as part of a large infrastructure package designed by Beijing to economically assimilate its smaller neighbor, with at least 10 new civilian airports, dozens of seaports, and bridges from Fujian Province to Taiwan’s Matsu and Quemoy islands.
The plans have the full-throated support of Chinese leader Xi Jinping (???), who in March told Fujian officials to “be bold in exploring new paths for integrated cross-strait development,” according to the report. Over the years, these “new paths” have been equal parts absurd and sinister, such as in 2016, when China proposed building a bridge all the way to Taiwan’s main island through Pingtan.
The intended recipient of these boondoggles, Taiwan, has made clear it rejects any attempts to aggressively entwine it into the infrastructure of a hostile foreign power.
Pingtan Island or Haitan Island[1] is an island of Fuzhou off the east coast of mainland Asia in Pingtan County, Fujian Province, China (PRC), south of the complex estuary of the Min River. It is the largest island in Fujian and the fifth-largest island administered by the People's Republic of China .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingtan_Island
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Potential Military Implications of Pingtan Island’s New Transportation Infrastructure
Publication: China Brief Volume: 21 Issue: 6
By: Kristian McGuire March 26, 2021 03:46 PM Age: 5 months
Image: An aerial photo taken on September 21, 2019 shows construction on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge. Construction of the main structure was completed in the same year and the bridge was opened in 2020 (Image source: China.org.cn).
Introduction
Within the last decade, Pingtan Island (???, Pingtan Dao), which is the nearest territory to the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan) controlled by the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China), has transformed from a relative backwater into a significant transportation hub. The opening of the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge (????????, Pingtan Haixia Gong-Tie Daqiao)—first to automobile traffic in October 2020 and then to high-speed rail traffic in December 2020—marked the island’s connection to the PRC’s integrated transportation system (????????, Zonghe Jiaotong Yunshu Tixi) (People’s Daily, October 9, 2020; CGTN, December 27, 2020). Beijing sees developing Pingtan’s transportation infrastructure as facilitating deeper engagement between the PRC and Taiwan. It intends for this increased engagement to promote the integration and eventual unification of ROC-controlled territories with mainland China (Fjbt.gov.cn, January 31, 2019)
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