Those who get Scarborough Shoal get the South China Sea, and 11 years ago they were recaptured from neighboring countries, so why hasn't the island been reclaimed for a long time?Scarborough Shoal is the only reef in the Spratly Islands that is outcropped. Although it covers an area of only 150 square kilometers, it happens to form a special triangle with Woody Island and Banyan Island. Once Scarborough Shoal is reclaimed and turned into a large artificial island with an airport and docks, the three islands will be enclosed in a solid iron triangle, and the South China Sea will be impeccable.
China was the first country to discover Scarborough Shoal. During the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan sent astronomer Guo Shoujing to various parts of the world to conduct tests, using 27 sites in the Yuan Dynasty to measure the land. Scarborough Shoal is one of the measurement points. Before 1992, there was no international dispute to China's sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal. But in 1993, the Philippines began to privately investigate Scarborough Shoal, and even sent troops to patrol it. In 1997, the Philippines became more and more rampant, blowing up China's sovereignty symbol on Scarborough Shoal, and wantonly driving and arresting Chinese fishermen on the pretext of defending sovereignty.
In 1998, Philippine forces directly forcibly occupied Scarborough Shoal, followed by forcible occupation of Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. As early as 1935 and 1961, Scarborough Shoal was not included in the relevant constitutions of the Philippines at all. Since Scarborough Shoal has never belonged to the Philippines, their provocations are a bit sobering.
Good words persuade you not to listen, you have to choose the sword to go sideways. As a result, China directly and strongly took back de facto control of Scarborough Shoal after the Philippine arrest of Chinese fishermen in 2012 triggered the Scarborough Shoal incident. After 15 years of illegal occupation by the Philippines, Scarborough Shoal has finally returned to the embrace of the motherland.
However, 11 years have passed since China successfully reclaimed Scarborough Shoal in 2012, but there is no news about the construction of Scarborough Shoal. Why?China has rich capabilities and experience in the construction of artificial islands, but if we want to truly build barren rock islands, we must take a long-term view. First, the Philippines has not stopped harassing Scarborough Shoal since China took it back in 2012. Although China's position is firm, the instability of the Philippines is not conducive to the development and construction of China's Scarborough Shoal. Second, in recent years, many countries in the world have begun to wake up in the Garden of Eden created by the United States, and the Philippines is naturally among them, and Sino-Philippine relations have also eased.
In this case, if the construction of Scarborough Shoal causes unnecessary problems, it seems that the gains outweigh the losses. Second, China's South China Sea tends to be saturated in the early stage, and the strategic deployment of the four major islands can cover almost the entire South China Sea. Moreover, the construction of Huangyan Island was not accomplished overnight, so after weighing the pros and cons, China could only choose to shelve the island-building project of Huangyan Dao. However, this situation is only temporary, and it is believed that once the opportunity comes in the future, the large artificial island of Huangyan Island will one day be successfully launched.