China continuously guards the South China Sea despite the UNCLOS ruling. (Photo : Getty Images)
China's army and the Ukrainian Antonov Company will build the AN-225 Mriya. It has six massive engines creating over 300,000 pounds of thrust, and the plane can reportedly carry a 200-ton load nearly 2,500 miles.
An observer in Twitter posted, "It would provide China with the large and global lift that not even the U.S. has possessed, except by rental. It's large enough to carry helicopters, tanks, artillery, even other aircraft."
The partnership allows China to rent the planes but also gained rights to manufacture the planes domestically.
Aside from exploring developments in aircraft, the Chinese government has been China has been developing large, military-grade runways, as well as military hardened hangars in the South China Sea.
China intends to make the South China Sea a military zone with blueprints of building facilities in one of the islands.
"China is building hangar space for 24 fighter jets and 3-4 larger military planes at each of its three largest artificial islands," Gregory Poling, director of Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).
Poling added, "The number, size, and construction make it clear these are for military purposes--and they are the smoking gun that shows China has every intention of militarizing the Spratly Islands."
According to a report by the AMTI, "Construction of fighter-jet hangars appears complete at the southern end of the runway and is well-advanced along the middle of the airstrip. At the northern end, construction on a final set of hangars is still in the early stages."
However, the country's claim over the South China Sea has been unfounded and baseless, according to the Permanent Court Ruling of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
