even pagasa is claimed by china. the philippines recognized the strategic importance of the former no-man's land and occupied the island in the 1970s. it has a police station, a school, a clinic. the 200 island residents do well by philippine standards. and they've never worried about the chinese rolling over them. >> no, since we've been here the chinese haven't shown their faces at all. if anything, they fish in the breakers, but they've not been on the island. >> we're normal citizens. we have no control over our future. government heads and officials worry about that. reporter: it could be strategically advantageous to focus on the beauty of the spratlys. tourism could bring in money and may dissuade china from possible encroachment. it's worked for the settlers so far. the local mayor has his own ideas. >> by shuttle to ferry the passengers or tourists to that place. and then we're buying a sail boat and so by booking they can be assisted to go to pagasa or any island of kalayaan. reporter: china's method for cu

we landed on pagasa claimed by china, inhabited by filipinos and just 13 miles from sube reef, one ofds the chinese have been creating. >> okay. so just hop in here? >> reporter: there we hired some filipino fisher men to take us as close as we could get. >> thank you very much. thank you. >> reporter: one of the reasons the south china sea is so valuable is that it has 7 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. that's the oil consumption of the entire united states for a year. there are also the fisheries that provide these men with a living and shipping lanes that see 5 times more oil tanker traffic than the panama canal. as we were first approaching the reef you could see one crane. now as we get closer you can see a number of cranes up and down the length of this island. satellite images from early june revealed the pace of growth. the landfill has expanded dramatically. overall china is adding to its islands at the rate of at least 3 1/2 acres a day. it almost looks like a city in the middle of the sea. there's enough space for an airstrip. through the haze we could see the faint