Before September of last year, Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands was mostly submerged by the choppy turquoise waters of the South China Sea. But the Chinese Communist Party set its sights on the reef around that time and determined to make it the newest link in its chain of military bases across the disputed region.

The Chinese first built an access channel cutting through the reef’s lagoon. This cleared the way for 22 cutter-suction dredger vessels to enter the area in December. Satellite imagery shows that the crews spent months chewing into the seabed, sucking up sand and coral, and then spraying it across the high parts of the reef. It then cemented over it to create new land. They have reclaimed 1,500 acres so far.

Next, the Chinese built a series of jetties, two piers, a helipad, numerous gray-roofed buildings and what appears to be the foundation of a military-grade runway. They dredged out a lagoon that appears capable of berthing submarines and warships—perhaps even aircraft carriers. As construction presses ahead with unmistakable military intent, analysts say Antelope Reef could soon become China’s largest military base in the region.

Given the size and location of the reef, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative director Gregory Poling told the Telegraph that next the Chinese will likely bring in radars, fuel storage infrastructure and both cruise and surface-to-air missiles. “It will mostly be a listening post and a point from which vessels will resupply and patrol the waters between the Paracels and Vietnam,” he said, “which is going to be very irritating for Hanoi.”

Poling added: “This will be a work in progress over the next few years, but it’s reasonable to expect that we’ll see some use of the facility by the end of the year.”

When Antelope Reef is operational, it will be among more than two dozen military outposts that China has built across disputed areas of the South China Sea, with 20 in the Paracels and seven in the Spratly Islands, close to the Philippines.

Bonnie Glaser, a China analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (pla), will soon rely on these militarized outposts to assert more and more dominance over this key region. “They’ve built these extensive facilities, and both Chinese civilian and pla experts have always made it clear that when the strategic time is right, they’re going to start using them more fully,” she said. “I think it is a question of when, rather than if, China will start to assert its interests more forcefully in the South China Sea.”

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has said China’s ongoing land reclamation and militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea “should alarm the world” because it means “China is steering the world toward war.” This is mainly due to the vast volume of trade that flows through this region, he said. In the Trumpet’s July 2016 issue, he wrote:

These militarized islands now function as forward bases for Beijing to challenge seven decades of American naval dominance in the Pacific Rim. This should alarm the world!

Each year, $5.3 trillion of trade passes through the South China Sea. That is roughly one third of the world’s maritime commerce! Since Japan’s defeat in World War ii, America has protected this vital trade route and brought peace to this part of the world. Now the American military is retreating, and other great powers are coming in to fill the vacuum. This is going to dramatically affect trade around the world, and U.S. trade especially.

A trade war often precedes a shooting war. That is what happened just before World War ii—especially so in Asia. …

China is intimidating the nations of Southeast Asia into submission to its will. It is forcing these countries to do what it wants.

Everything is headed in the direction of war.

Mr. Flurry’s article goes on to explain that this Chinese initiative will contribute to the fulfillment of a Bible prophecy that modern-day America and Britain will be besieged by China and other countries. Deuteronomy 28:52 discusses this future besiegement: “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trusted, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.”

Mr. Flurry says China’s military takeover of the South China Sea is one of several places where onlookers today “can already see this prophecy moving toward its fulfillment.” This activity is pushing to a time when China and its partners will be capable of controlling one third of the world’s maritime commerce through this crucial region, and the U.S. “will find it impossible to import oil and other necessities,” he wrote.

To understand the full significance of China’s land reclamation and militarization in the South China Sea, what it means for the U.S. and Britain, and why these developments show that “everything is headed in the direction of war,” read Mr. Flurry’s article “China Is Steering the World Toward War.”