BBC Chinese recently reported that China announced a plan to start the preparation work for constructing an environmental monitoring station on Huangyan Island, also known as Scarborough Shoal. China occupied Huangyan Island in 2012 and prohibited the Philippines’ fishermen from entering the region. However, China started to allow fishing after the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to China last year. China’s new announcement indicated the intent to start the construction in 2017. The Philippines Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to comment on this latest announcement. Last month one of the Philippines’ ministers said that Chinese President XI Jinping promised not to do construction work on the island, but China later said that the comment was “confusing.” In the meantime, two U.S. senators, namely Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin, proposed a new sanction to ban the issuance of U.S. visas to the Chinese citizens who are related to island construction. China expressed its “anger” and described the two senators as “arrogant and ignorant.”
Source: BBC Chinese, March 17, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-39305610