China has used "coercive tactics" to boost its presence and control over disputed areas of the South China Sea and is shifting gears to beef up its military assets in the contested waters, a report released Friday by the Pentagon said.
The annual report is the U.S. Defense Department's most detailed yet on the subject of China's island-building program.
It said that while Beijing paused its land-reclamation work in the disputed Spratly Islands late last year after adding more than 3,200 acres (1,280 hectares) of land to seven features it occupies there, the man-made islets give China long-term "civil-military" outposts from which it can project power.