Vietnam has revved up South China Sea land reclamation efforts this year, beginning construction on eight previously untouched Spratly Islands features.
The Russian base was built using new construction technologies as part of Kremlin efforts to bolster the military amid spiraling tensions with the West following Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
According to U.S. Navy data, war ships maneuvered close to artificial islands claimed and developed by China 10 times in 2019 and another 10 times last year, at least double the annual number going back to 2014.
The Trump administration escalated its actions against China on Monday by stepping squarely into one of the most sensitive regional issues dividing them and rejecting outright nearly all of Beijing’s significant maritime claims in the South China Sea.
A U.S. aircraft carrier sailed through the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday in the latest show of America's military might amid new territorial flare-ups involving China and three rival claimant states.