China’s scramble for desert island supremacy: How Beijing has rushed to militarise tropical reefs and build up ‘String of Pearls’ alliance across Indian Ocean’s paradise isles – as Starmer faces fury for giving up Chagos [Video]

12:10 EDT 04 Oct 2024, updated 12:51 EDT 04 Oct 2024

For years, China has taken over uninhabited reef islands and transformed them into high-tech military bases, while simultaneously engaging in military diplomacy to cultivate allies across the Indo-Pacific.

Beijing is seeking to establish strategic strongpoints – known as its ‘String of Pearls -from the South China Sea, through the Indian Ocean, all the way to the Arabian Gulf.

And now China hawks have expressed fears that Keir Starmer could have handed Xi Jinping a major win after ceding the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean, to Beijing ally Mauritius.

While the government insists the deal secures the future of the US-UK base on Diego Garcia, leading Tories have expressed fears that the deal with Mauritius could open the door to China establishing a base on another of the cluster’s uninhabited islands.

‘Mauritius is free to rent them out to anybody else, including, for example, China,’ …