Images show new structures in China-occupied Paracels

China has increased its structures in the Paracel Islands, one of groups of islands in the disputed South China Sea, recent satellite images indicated.

According to a News to Go report on Thursday, a comparison of images taken on November 11, 2015 October 12, 2017 showed additional facilities have been constructed in the area.

Aside from China, the Paracels are also being claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

Bonnie Glaser, a China security expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a Reuters report that construction of these facilities showed China's "more forceful" assertion of its interests.

President Rodrigo Duterte, back from his two-day working visit to Japan, said that he remained hopeful that China would stay true to the promise of halting any additional construction of structures on disputed Philippine soil. —Margaret Claire Layug/NB, GMA News