China opens shopping centre on Woody Island in disputed Paracels in South China Sea
6,000 square metre complex is latest Chinese civilian facility on South China Sea island after first hardware store and hotpot restaurant
China has opened a new shopping centre on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel Islands, bolstering its civilian presence on the strategically vital South China Sea outpost.
Woody Island is the largest of around 30 islands in the Paracels chain and serves as the administrative hub of Sansha, a city established in Hainan province in 2012 to assert Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Sansha governs the Paracels, as well as the disputed Spratly Islands and Macclesfield Bank, called Nansha Islands and Zhongsha Islands, respectively, in China.
The city had a permanent population of about 2,200 at the end of 2024, according to data from the Hainan statistics bureau.