The highly respected retired UP professor Clarita Carlos in her Facebook account expressed outrage over the transformation from 2013 to 2015 of the seven reefs in the Spratlys that China has occupied since 1988, into artificial islands, complete with facilities. The comments are surprising though for the gross ignorance over this development, which really is of epic in the geopolitics of the South China Sea.

Tiglao, R. D. (2021, December 24). Blowback: China's artificial islands. The Manila Times, pp. A1, A5.