Antelope Reef transformation another step in Beijing’s destructive South China Sea activities

FORUM Staff

Beijing’s development of Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands is the latest example of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attempts to project power across the South China Sea. The undertaking potentially is much greater in scope than previous CCP efforts to excavate and militarize reefs, shoals and other features in the sea.

Dredging that is dramatically reshaping Antelope Reef began in October 2025, with the likely goal of turning the remote, teardrop-shaped reef into another military outpost, according to the Open Source Centre (OSC), a United Kingdom-based research group. When completed, the formerly uninhabited, largely submerged reef will be one of the CCP’s 20 such sites in the Paracels. The archipelago’s primary base is Woody Island, another natural formation that Beijing expanded and militarized.

At Antelope Reef, sand has been pumped from the reef’s lagoon and surrounding waters, with at least one concrete plant, and roll-on/roll-off berths for cranes, dump trucks and other heavy equipment constructed, the OSC reported in February 2026. There are prefabricated shelters for work crews and a causeway to access the dredged sand, satellite images show.

A straight-line edge on one of the reef’s artificial beaches suggests Beijing might build a military-grade runway, the BBC reported in June 2026. China also might establish a civilian presence on Antelope Reef as it did on Woody Island.

The dredged reef’s projected size — 603 hectares — is significant, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) reported in March 2026. “If construction proceeds at the pace seen in satellite imagery, Antelope Reef is set to become China’s largest feature in the Paracels and potentially in the entire South China Sea,” according to AMTI, a project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Antelope Reef, once a thriving ecosystem of coral and marine life, is in the Paracels’ western Crescent Group. It lies 162 nautical miles from China’s Hainan province and 216 nautical miles from Da Nang, Vietnam. China gained control of the Paracels in a 1974 sea battle with Vietnam, which still claims the islands and reefs.

Beijing’s activity parallels its efforts to gain a foothold in the Spratly Islands, southeast of the Paracels. An international tribunal’s 2016 ruling, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in a case brought by Manila, rejected China’s arbitrary claim to most of the sea, an international trade route valued for resources including fossil fuels, minerals and fish. Despite being a UNCLOS signatory, Beijing has ignored the binding ruling.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam also have claims in the South China Sea, and Beijing’s incursions into their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZ) have been widely condemned, including by the United States and its Allies and Partners.

“China already maintains a network of outposts across the Paracel and Spratly Islands,” the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, reported in April 2026. “Antelope Reef adds capacity, redundancy and dispersal. It is another node in a distributed architecture designed to sustain presence.”

UNCLOS protects and preserves marine environments, among other provisions. Beijing in September 2025 unilaterally declared part of Scarborough Reef, a largely submerged atoll in the Spratlys that is within the Philippines’ EEZ, an “island nature reserve.” The move drew immediate rebuke, with analysts noting China’s destruction of maritime habitats to build military outposts. Beijing’s assertion was “less about protecting the environment and more about justifying control over a maritime feature that is part of the territory of the Philippines,” said Eduardo Año, the Philippines’ then national security advisor.

Despite China causing irreversible damage to South China Sea features and its selective compliance with UNCLOS, it wants its coastal city of Xiamen chosen as the permanent administrative hub for a new international treaty to protect the marine environment. The Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction agreement, ratified by more than 60 nations, took effect in January 2026. The selection of its headquarters, scheduled for January 2027, will “profoundly shape the future trajectory of global ocean governance,” The Diplomat magazine reported in April 2026.