Blasting Bullhorns and Water Cannons, Chinese Ships Wall Off the Sea

This is what it looks like when a Chinese naval vessel bears down on your fishing boat.

We know because we were there. This boat was carrying Times journalists off the island of Palawan, in the Philippines, looking at how China was imposing its territorial ambitions on the South China Sea.

An international court says China has no claim to these waters. The Chinese navy boat guarding Mischief Reef said differently.

Supported by

By Hannah Beech

Photographs and Video by Jes Aznar

The Chinese military base on Mischief Reef, off the Philippine island of Palawan, loomed in front of our boat, obvious even in the predawn dark.

Radar domes, used for military surveillance, floated like nimbus clouds. Lights pointed to a runway made for fighter jets, backed by warehouses perfect for surface-to-air missiles. More than 900 miles from the Chinese mainland, in an area of the South China Sea that an international tribunal has unequivocally determined does not belong to China, cellphones pinged with a message: “Welcome to China.”

The world’s most brazen maritime militarization is gaining muscle in waters through which one-third of global ocean trade passes. Here, on underwater reefs that are known as the Dangerous Ground, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A., has fortified an archipelago of forward operating bases that have branded these waters as China’s despite having no international legal grounding. China’s coast guard, navy and a fleet of fishing trawlers harnessed into a militia are confronting other vessels, civilian and military alike.

Antenna array

8,900-foot runway

accommodates large

military aircraft

Surface-to-air missile garage

Meteorology station

Underground fuel

and water storage

Radar array

Large aircraft

hangars

Radar

arrays

Militia vessels

many parked together

side-by-side

Radar arrays

Surface-to-surface

missile garage

Channels

for ship passage

Pre-2014 outpost

1 mile

8,900-foot runway

accommodates large

military aircraft

N

Large aircraft

hangars

Underground fuel

and water storage

Antenna array

Militia vessels

many parked together

side-by-side

Surface-to-air

missile garage

Radar array

Meteorology

station

Surface-to-surface

missile garage

Radar arrays

.5 mile

Antenna array

Surface-to-air