Here's a new way to exert influence on a disputed territory: Build your own islands on it.

Since January, China has been dragging huge scoops of sand from around a reef in the South China Sea and piling it into islands that can be seen in satellite photos, the New York Times reports.

The place where they're doing their building is Mischief Reef, a thin circle of coral that sits between Vietnam, the Philippines, China, and Taiwan near a group of islands called the Spratly Islands.