[nikos1121]

How strategic are those islands? They’re like little dots in the ocean. One good storm, and they’re washed away.

I fail to see the advantage of them.

Just cruise by them, fly over them and in short ignore them.

[entropy12]

Those islands give much needed port space for their Navy. Also, it is like the story of letting one foot of camel in the tent. Where does it stop?

[buckalfa]

" I fail to see the advantage of them. "

Think expansion of China's 200 mi!e costal zone limit and the ability to militarily interdict the South China Sea lanes. Trump would be willing to try and protect freedom of the seas but is the US Navy up to the task (readiness) at this point in time.

[Ancesthntr]

“How strategic are those islands? They’re like little dots in the ocean. One good storm, and they’re washed away.

I fail to see the advantage of them.”

---

They are claiming 200-mile zones around them as their “territorial waters,” enabling them to drill for oil to the exclusion of others. Building the islands up effectively gives them a bunch of aircraft carriers (though not mobile, of course). They have planes and anti-aircraft missiles there primarily to intimidate everyone else in the area, and secondarily to actually fight to defend those islands. No, they wouldn’t be successful, but the forces there are a trip-wire, much like our Blackhorse Brigade in the Fulda Gap was when the threat of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was real.

[servantboy777]

>>How strategic are those islands?<<

They've given the Chi-coms a reach they did not have eight years ago.

May have been able to ignore them a while ago, but now the Chi-coms have incorporated military aircraft runways/hangers, radar, Surface to air missile/anti-aircraft batteries. Lil hard to ignore now. Certainly wouldn't want to fly directly over them.