Briefs | South China Sea – Beijing starts operating lighthouses on disputed reef

China has started operating two lighthouses on a reef on a disputed island chain in the South China Sea, a state news agency reported, amid rising concerns among the U.S. and China’s neighbors about Beijing’s maritime ambitions.
The Ministry of Transport held a completion ceremony last week for the 50-meter-high Huayang and Chigua lighthouses on Huayang Reef in the Spratly Islands, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The Spratlys, mostly barren islands, reefs and atolls that are believed to be atop oil and natural gas deposits, straddle one of the world’s busiest sea lanes. They are also claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei.
Tensions have been rising as Beijing has grown more assertive about its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea. The U.S. and the Philippines have expressed concern that China’s land reclamation projects around reefs and atolls could be used to base military planes and navy ships to intimidate other claimants and threaten freedom of navigation, and have called for a freeze on such activity.
China has bristled at what it sees as U.S. interference in the region and says it is within its sovereign rights in developing islands made from sand piled on top of reefs and atolls.
Xinhua said the lighthouses were meant to address a severe shortage in navigational aids, as well as shortages in maritime emergency and oil-spill response forces, that “has immensely hindered the navigational safety and economic and social development” in the South China Sea. It said China’s transport ministry would continue to construct facilities to provide passing vessels and countries in the region with navigational services. AP

Anhui – Gas container explodes in restaurant in Wuhu, killing 17

A leaking liquefied gas container exploded on contact with fire in a restaurant in eastern China, killing 17 people, authorities said.
The explosion happened just before noon Saturday at a small privately run restaurant in Wuhu city’s Jinghu district, the Wuhu city government said on its microblog. Wuhu is in Anhui province, about 350 kilometers west of Shanghai.
An initial investigation found the gas cylinder leaked and came into contact with fire, triggering an explosion, the city government said.
The restaurant was one of many in an alley about 50 meters long, said a worker at a rice noodles restaurant across from the one where the blast happened.
“When the fire broke out, people from nearby restaurants rushed to the scene and used fire extinguishers to try and put it out, but there was a lot of smoke and it was quite fierce and already blocked the door,” the worker, who would only give his surname, Wang, said by telephone. AP