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A completion
ceremony was held for the lighthouses on Cuateron Reef and
Johnson South Reef in the Spratly islands, Xinhua said late on
Friday. The United States and the Philippines have opposed the
construction.
China claims most of the energy-rich South China Sea, through
which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and the
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have
overlapping claims.
China said on Friday it would not stand for violations of its
territorial waters in the name of freedom of navigation, as the
United States considers sailing warships to waters inside the
12-nautical-mile zones around islands it has built in the
Spratly chain.
Washington has signaled it does not recognize Beijing's
sovereignty over the several islands China has built on reefs in
the Spratly archipelago and says the U.S. navy will continue to
operate wherever international law allows.
The issue is central to increasingly tense relations between the
United States and China, the world's two largest economies.
Beijing has said construction in the region is to help maritime
search and rescue, disaster relief, environmental protection and
navigational security. It has also said it will continue to
build other installations to better serve countries in the
region and vessels navigating those waters.
(Reporting by Kazunori Takada; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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