BEIJING: One of China’s top folk singers is rocking her away across disputed territory in the South China Sea, serenading hundreds of troops and construction workers stationed there, Chinese media reported on Thursday.

Song Zuying, who has performed with the likes of Canadian superstar Celine Dion, is part of an all-singing, all-dancing People’s Liberation Army (PLA) entertainment tour of the Spratly Islands, reports said.

Footage of the troupe’s performance broadcast on Chinese state television was the first to show the progress of construction on Fiery Cross Reef, one of the artificial islands China has built on outcrops also claimed by the Philippines, according to the Global Times.

“Buildings, roads, and lighthouses are beginning to take shape”, it said.

Pictures showed Song in uniform, microphone in hand, surrounded by hard-hatted workers on one side and military personnel on the other.

The singer, who is said to hold the rank of rear admiral in the PLA, often appears in the country’s New Year gala, considered the most watched television programme in the world.

The Fiery Cross project was one of several by China that have raised tensions in the region, with Washington sending ships and planes into nearby waters and airspace in an attempt to counter what it has described as a threat to freedom of navigation.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016