The US has started a new series of games with China by sending its guided missile destroyer USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of China's isles in the South China Sea.

We need to define the legal status of built-up islands and reefs according to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of Sea. It should be made clear that the land claim projects are carried out in China's land and islets, rather than as the US media claim being artificial islands that have no territorial sea of their own.

According to Article 121 of UNCLOS, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of an island are determined in accordance with the provisions of this Convention applicable to other land territory.