Vietnam protests as China’s Paracels build-up escalates at Antelope Reef

2026.03.22 07:20 Antelope Reef is strategically located about 300km (186 miles) from Sanya, a major base for Chinese naval and air forces overseeing the South China Sea. Photo: European Union Hanoi has protested to Beijing over Chinese land-reclamation activities in the disputed Paracel Islands, following reports of accelerated dredging and landfill operations at Antelope Reef in the South China Sea. “Vietnam resolutely opposes such activities, makes representations and affirms its position on this matter,” Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang said on Saturday. She said Hanoi had “ample historical evidence and legal grounds” to assert sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, including Antelope Reef, in accordance with international law. She added that any foreign activities in the waters without Vietnam’s permission were “completely illegal and invalid”. It was unclear when the protest was lodged, but last week Chinese and Vietnamese foreign, security and defence ministers agreed in Hanoi to “properly” address maritime disputes. The foreign ministry in Beijing has been contacted for comment. China took full control of the Paracels – known as the Xisha Islands in China and the Hoang Sa Islands in Vietnam – in 1974 after a naval battle with South Vietnam, which collapsed in the following year when forces from its northern neighbour captured Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. Antelope Reef is strategically located about 300km (186 miles) from Sanya, a port on the southernmost tip of the Chinese island of Hainan and about 400km from Da Nang on the Vietnamese coast. Sanya is also a major base for Chinese naval and air forces overseeing the South China Sea. Citing satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites, American news magazine Newsweek reported in early January that new sand dredging began at Antelope Reef – known as Lingyang Jiao in China and Da Hai Sam in Vietnam – around October last year. Using recent commercial satell

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