Free The South China Sea by Bill Hayton Page A

trees: standard-issue Vietnamese state-sector buildings (red tiles,ochre walls, neo-classical balconies) transplanted from the mainland by the forces of socialist construction.
    Viewed from above, the island forms a neatly isosceles triangle, like a way-marker pointing back towards the motherland, 470 kilometres away. Stretching right across its base, and occupying about a quarter of the entire area, lies a concrete runway – originally built by South Vietnamese forces and rebuilt in 2004. A mesh of pathways runs parallel and perpendicular among the imported trees, creating a garden suburb in the sea. Protruding from the base of the triangle into the sea, a cedilla of a jetty stretches 75 metres over the first bank of coral into water deep enough to welcome fishing boats and the occasional supply vessel. Less welcoming structures fill the water around the rest of the perimeter: hull-smashing spikes intended to wreck an invading force before it can reach the shore.
    It's crucial for the Vietnamese cause that the island appears to be a settled, economically vibrant community, so great efforts are made to construct the appearance of ‘normality’. Like almost every Vietnamese village, the island hosts a Buddhist pagoda, a temple devoted to a patron figure (in this case socialist Vietnam's ‘founding uncle’, Ho Chi Minh) and an overbearing grey monument to heroes who fell in the fight for national liberation (‘the nation remembers your sacrifice’). There's also a large school building to cater for the tiny number of children living on the island. Visitors can enjoy the hospitality afforded by the ‘Capital Guest House’, paid for by donations from the people of Hanoi.
    Such ‘voluntary’ collections and other state subsidies make the local government, or People's Committee, one of the best funded per capita in the country. In the past few years, its deputy chairman Nguyen Duc Thien told the official Vietnam News Agency in 2011, investments in solar and wind power mean the island has a regular supply of electricity, the construction of reservoirs allows it to store enough water to meet demand and communications links have given it access to the internet. 4 Chickens and ducks roam the island. Small vegetable plots have been established behind high screens that attempt to keep out wind, sand and salt. Bananas and other fruit trees line the pathways. A $170,000 project run by the Southern Vietnam Institute for Agricultural Science is trying to increase productivity but Truong Sa Lon is hardly self-sufficient. 5 The populationhas grown so large that food, water and even the soil in which the plants grow still have to be shipped in.
    It's not just material needs that need to be catered for. The island population's moral welfare must also be protected. In April 2012 five monks from the official Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (motto: Dharma, Nation, Socialism) set sail for a six-month sojourn on Truong Sa Lon with a mission to improve the spiritual lives of the community. The Communist Party of Vietnam is also concerned about morale. Apart from the usual round of military inspections and national days, two anniversaries are carefully marked: the 1975 ‘liberation’ of the islands from South Vietnamese control and the 1988 Battle of Johnson Reef. At these ceremonies young soldiers are urged to be eternally vigilant against the ‘insidious schemes’ of the unnamed ‘enemy’. 6 Spratly Island is not a ‘normal’ island: it's an unsinkable bulwark. Hidden among the trees – between the school and the guesthouse and the pagoda – are bunkers, barracks, at least five battle tanks, 20 gun emplacements and a garrison to defend them. 7 But living there – or on one of the 21 other Vietnamese-controlled smaller islands and reefs – is tough. Keeping the troops and sailors motivated is crucial and the Party is ever keen to nurture emotional links between the units out at sea and the folks back home.
    The Party excels at organising