People on Yongxing Island in the South China Sea can now eat vegetables grown on the island, marking a further step of construction on the island, which is of key strategic significance.

Huang Yufen, 50, bought all the food for Lunar New Year's Eve dinner from a newly opened supermarket.

"It was a big dinner. The supermarket has made our life here very convenient, with no difference at all compared with life on the continent," said Huang, a construction worker.

Yongxing Island is the biggest of the Xisha islands. The city government of Sansha, Hainan province, China's southernmost city that was set up in 2012, is on the island.

Yongxing Island was in the global spotlight this week as Fox News cited satellite photos as showing that China had deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system there. Chinese authorities, in response, said the country has every right to deploy defense facilities on its territory.

According to Hainan Daily, the local government has called on fishermen to grow vegetables on unused land.

The Ministry of Science and Technology also allocated funds to build a 28,000 square meter greenhouse to grow vegetables.

Now, people can buy 23 kinds of vegetables and more than 10 kinds of fruit at the supermarket. Vegetables grown on the island, including bean sprouts, spinach and bok choy are priced from 7.6 yuan ($1.17) to 9.6 yuan per kilogram.

Cai Damao, a manager of the vegetable greenhouse in Sansha, said the prices in the supermarket are the same as at the greenhouse.

Liu Zeyun, a local civil servant, said that vegetables previously came mostly from Hainan Island.

"When the weather was bad, we would sometimes run out of vegetables. Now the problem has been settled."

Li Xiaokun contributed to this story.