|
Fiery Cross Reef, also known as "Northwest Investigator Reef", Yongshu Island (永暑岛) or Yongshu Reef (永暑礁) by the Chinese, "Kagitingan Reef" by the Filipnos, and "Đá Chữ Thập" by the Vietnamese, was a group of three reefs on the western edge of Dangerous Ground in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea. The area is controlled by China (as part of Sansha) and is also claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The reef was named after the ''Fiery Cross'', a British Tea Clipper lost there on 4 March 1860 (later its more famous sister ship took the same name), and was surveyed by Lieutenant J. W. Reed of the HMS ''Rifleman'', who discovered it to be one extensive reef in 1867, and had found there the apparent wrecks of the ''Fiery Cross'' and the ''Meerschaum''. Fiery Cross Reef has been occupied by China since 1988 when a UNESCO Marine observation station was built there. In 2014, China commenced reclamation activity in the area, and it has been converted into an artificial island of about 230ha. There were around 200 Chinese troops on the reef in late 2014, though this number is likely to have increased significantly in 2015 with the addition of support personnel for the new airbase (including 3,125 m-long runway) and associated early warning radar site. ==Weather Station== In 1987, following a UNESCO meeting in March, it was agreed that the PRC would build weather stations in the South China sea as part of a global oceanic survey. In April 1987, the PRC chose to build a weather station on Fiery Cross reef as the reef was large enough for the purpose, and it was isolated from other disputed islands and reefs. However, this caused further skirmishes with Vietnam when, in January 1988, some Vietnamese ships with construction materials tried to approach the reef in a bid to construct Vietnamese structures. The weather station was commissioned by UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission(IOC). Construction was commenced in February 1988 and completed in August 1988. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fiery Cross Reef」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|