Hainan officials want to create a national park in the South China Sea
Officials are trying to turn one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints into a tourism hotspot
After turning reefs in the South China Sea into artificial islands filled with soldiers and missiles, China is now considering proposals aimed at creating a national marine park in the disputed body of water to “better preserve the marine ecology in the region.”
The plan for the park was pressed at the National People’s Congress in Beijing by representatives from the southernmost province of Hainan. With the head of the province’s environmental protection department declaring to the Global Times that China has always attached “great importance” to the protection of the South China Sea’s “unique and rich resources,” but a national park is what really is needed to get the job done.
“A national park in the region can improve people’s awareness of the region’s importance, and the South China Sea should be a textbook for marine protection in China,” added Wang Changren, the party chief of the Hainan Tropical Ocean University in Sanya.
Wang also said that other countries in the region, who also hold claims to South China Sea territory, ought to “reach a consensus in the protection of marine ecology in the vast waters.”
Of course, a number of environmental experts have already reached the consensus that China is doing irreparable environmental damage to the South China Sea through its massive land reclamation efforts there.
In its 2016 decision which found that China’s vast claims to the South China Sea had no basis in law, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague also said that China had “caused severe harm to the coral reef environment,” “inflicted irreparable harm to the marine environment,” and “violated its obligation to preserve and protect fragile ecosystems and the habitat of depleted, threatened, or endangered species” with its island-building.
However, China has repeatedly rejected criticism that its island building is somehow damaging the environment, calling the efforts a “Green Project” and claiming that the process is a “natural simulation”of sea storms which blow away and move biological scraps that gradually evolve into an oasis on the sea.
“Once China’s construction activities are completed, ecological environmental protection on relevant islands and reefs will be notably enhanced and such action stands the test of time,” declared Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei in 2016.
John McManus, professor of marine biology and fisheries and director of the National Center for Coral Reef Research at the University of Miami, is one of the key environmental scholars who have said that China’s explanation is complete nonsense, arguing that China’s method for constructing islands is in no way natural and only results in China “killing basically everything.”
Meanwhile, McManus has also criticized China for not doing enough to stop giant clam poachers, who are causing even more damage to the environment.
Officials in Hainan have long been pushing the tourism value of China’s disputed islands in the South China Sea. At last year’s NPC, delegates from the province pressed for more tour flights to be added to the Paracels, an island chain that is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
Presumably, the creation of a national park would be one more step towards transforming the South China Sea into not only one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints, but a tourist hotspot as well.
