Amid protests from claimant-countries, China has announced plans of developing the islands it controls in the disputed waters of the South China Sea by inviting investors to pour money into Sansha city and other islands which are part of the disputed Paracel islands.

Along with the development plan, Beijing said regular flights will be made to the sparsely populated Sansha island this year as part of its tourism industry in the South China Sea region.

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China hopes to boost tourist arrivals in the island by introducing regular civilian flights to the area.

Feng Wenhai, the deputy mayor of Sansha, said the city will welcome private investment and 'will initiate public-private partnership programs' to develop the other islands.

Feng said he was looking forward for the construction of a maritime medical rescue center in the city  this year and will push for the establishment of WiFi connection in all inhabited islands and reefs.

The deputy mayor said Sansha city on the Yongxing Island, which has a few thousand residents, was built by China in 2012 to help Beijing protect and govern the other islands in the region.

Several facilities have risen in Sansha such as a bank, a hospital, a library and a supermarket over the years.

On Friday, the Chinese media released pictures of what appeared to be the first tourists that have visited the hotly contested Fiery Cross Reef.

The picture showed a number of tourists standing in front of two civilian aircraft on the newly built tarmac on the reef.

Vietnam recently protested China's landing of a plane on the Fiery Cross Reef saying the brazen act was a clear violation of its sovereignty to the Spratlys group of islands.

But China had defended its test flights saying the reef is Chinese territory and therefore it does not need to notify Hanoi or anybody about its flights.

"China has a long coastline and a vast maritime area under our jurisdiction. To safeguard our maritime sovereignty, interests and rights is the sacred mission of the Chinese armed forces," a spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry, Yang Yujun said.

The Paracel Islands is composed of 40 islands, isles and reefs in the South China Sea and is being claimed by China, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

China is claiming almost all the islands, reefs, and islets in the South China Sea which is believed to contain huge deposits of gas and oil. About $5 trillion of maritime trade passes through the area each year.

TagsParacel Islands, Sansha Islands, regular civilian flights, Deputy mayor of Sansha Feng Wenhai