Beijing stokes tensions after building cinema on disputed Woody island in South China Sea

China has built a cinema on a disputed island in the South China Sea where it is screening Communist propaganda films – a move that will likely infuriate Taiwan and Vietnam.

Some 200 people, including members of the military packed into the Yinlong Cinema on Woody Island, known as Yongxing in Chinese, to see the The Eternity Of Jiao Yulu.

The documentary pays tribute to late Communist party secretary Jiao Yulu, who devoted himself tirelessly to his political work in the 1960s and died from exhaustion and overwork.

Party officials tout the statesman as a symbol of a Communist stalwart in a bid to boost morale among workers and urge them to toil harder for the greater good of China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has dedicated a poem to the late statesman.

Chinese state broadcaster, CCTV, reported that the cinema was opened so that the island's 1,000 or so residents can enjoy the “same entertainment” shown in the mainland.

Gu Xiaojing, the manager of Hainan Media Group, which owns the Yinlgong cinema chain said there would be "at least one film each day" for the military personnel and civilians living on the island.

The cinema has portable digital projectors and will occasionally travel to other Chinese-controlled islands in the South China Sea to entertain troops and residents, according to the South China Morning Post.

Taiwan and Vietnam have not immediately commented on the cinema.

But both countries have protested as China has developed a number of islands in the Paracel and Spratly island chains, in a bid to assert its claims to the disputed territory.

An international tribunal in The Hague last year dismissed most of China’s claims, but Beijing has rejected its ruling.

A US think-tank in February said China had occupied 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands and had built up an extensive military presence on eight islands in the disputed offshore area.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said army chiefs had built helipads and a full helicopter base on five islands.

Beijing has also built an airstrip, hangars and surface to air missile batteries, researchers said.

“This is part of China’s broader efforts to consolidate its grip on adjacent waters and disputed islands,” said Richard Heydarian, a political science professor at De La Salle University in Manila.