China appears set on militarizing another reef in the South China Sea

The geospatial firm ingeniSPACE first noticed the phenomenon, as 2,000 Chinese vessels created this formation from Dec. 25-27 in waters northeast of Taiwan.

This coordinated activity occurred just three days before China announced a major exercise circumscribing Taiwan. Dubbed Justice Mission-2025, the PLA exercise was designed to browbeat Taiwan and rehearse the implementation of a naval blockade.

Something similar took place from Jan. 9-12, when some 1,400 Chinese fishing boats formed a 200-mile-long “barrier” for more than 30 hours, according to automatic identification system data.