China completes first stage of work at disputed South China Sea reef, images show

China has completed the first phase of construction on Antelope Reef in the Paracels archipelago, building a man-made island in the hotly-disputed South China Sea that analysts say will form part of its largest military ​base.

Lewis said he believed Antelope Reef could prove to be one of the Chinese military's most important features ​in the South China Sea, larger than neighbouring Woody Island and easier to defend than a network of bases further south in the Spratlys archipelago."The northern part of the South China Sea would be particularly important in a Taiwan conflict scenario, so Antelope is ideally placed," said Ben Lewis, founder of the open-source data platform PLATracker.