Current events: China building islands

I post this here because of the number of forum members who actually inhabit this part of the world. I am curious how this issue is viewed by others.

The United States is very concerned about the Chinese building “territory” on shallow reefs in the South China sea by dredging up the sea-floor and pouring it onto disputed reefs far away from the Chinese mainland to create new “Chinese territory”. Since these “islands” are nearer to the Philippines and Brunei, I wonder what the view from Asia is over this apparent land/sea grab?

Should the Asian countries with claims to these territories be more assertive towards China?

Should the US Navy challenge China over this activity?

I’m not going to speak on what should be done; I am, however, intrigued to see how this story unravels.

Somehow this feels like Spratlys Islands all over again when I studied in the Philippines…