China continues to show its aggression in having control not only over disputed islands on the South China Sea and East China Sea, but even underwater.
Within the same week that the U.S. and Japan complained over China’s behavior in the region, The Verge reported on Friday that Beijing is rushing the construction of an underwater space station 10,000 feet below the South China Sea.
The platform’s purpose it for searching for oil and gas reserves and as military post. It is included in China’s current five-year economic plans and is the second top 100 science and technology priorities.
Justifying the station, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at China’s national science conference in May, “The deep sea contains treasures that remain undiscovered and underdeveloped, and in order to obtain those treasures we have to control key technologies in getting into the deep sea, discovering the deep sea, and developing the deep sea.”
However, Bloomberg, which viewed the presentation by the Science Ministry, noticed the lack of details about the station, such as time line, blue print, location and expected cost.
The project, although it is movable, could further worsen tension in the region as China’s claims over 80 percent of the South China Sea as part of its sovereign territory conflicts with some of its Asian neighbors.
Beyond the search for underwater resources, which other countries are also doing, the underwater space station is expected to boost China’s standing as a global technology superpower by 2030. China is also building an Underwater Great Wall, a network of sensors to detect Russian and U.S. submarines in the South China Sea.