China has denied a U.S. think tank's report saying the country's extensive sand dredging and overfishing is to blame for widespread ecological destruction in the South China Sea.
"Such a report is neither factual nor verifiable. Why are they so obsessed with harping on the same string?" Ji Lingpeng, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the Philippines, said Saturday of the article by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The December report, "Deep Blue Scars: Environmental Threats to the South China Sea," blamed China for the partial or full destruction of over 21,000 acres of coral reef through devastating land reclamation, industrial fishing and clam harvesting practices in the contested sea, which boasts among the highest levels of oceanic biodiversity in the world.
"This think tank concocted the false report by citing a few satellite images and stirring up falsified allegations from years ago," Ji said, adding: "Though probably at their wit's end, they (CSIS) still have ulterior motives."
He said China has always valued the ecological protection of South China Sea islands and reefs and surrounding waters and conducted environmental protection and monitoring "in accordance with domestic and international laws."
Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese foreign ministry with a written request for comment.
China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China, including areas lying within its neighbors' exclusive economic zones (EEZ), within which international maritime law grants claimant states the sole right to natural resources.
China undertook extensive sand dredging in the South China Sea's Spratly Island archipelago between 2013 and 2017.
This land reclamation created over 3,000 acres of artificial islands at Spratly Islands features like Mischief Reef, more than all other South China Sea claimant states combined.
China, and recently also Vietnam, engages in the most destructive kind of land reclamation: cutter suction dredging, a process that cuts into reefs and pumps sediment into shallow waters via floating pipelines.
"This process disturbed the seafloor, creating clouds of abrasive sediment that killed nearby marine life and overwhelmed the coral reef's capacity to repair itself," CSIS said.
According to CSIS, Chinese harvesters of giant clams have damaged some 16,535 acres of reef. The report includes satellite imagery showing extensive scars left by the brass propellers used to harvest clams.
The report also points to data showing that since the 1990s fish stocks have remained largely static in the South China Sea, the source of 12 percent of the world's fish catches—in spite of intensified fishing methods.
However, the authors cite overfishing by China, which boasts the world's largest fishing fleet, and its fishermen's harmful practice of bottom trawling, as part of a broader degradation of the sea's ecology.
The environmental issue is one of the sticking points in China's ongoing territorial feud with the Philippines, with the latter last fall threatening to take legal action over "innumerable and immeasurable damage" to reefs within the Philippine EEZ.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
