China is making “significant progress” in building its fifth research facility in Antarctica after resuming construction for the first time since 2018, a report has said.
Beijing has sought to develop new shipping routes in the Arctic and expand its research in Antarctica, a move that Western governments worry would provide the People’s Liberation Army with better surveillance capabilities, Reuters said quoting a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The revelations regarding China’s growing footprint in the Antarctic were based on satellite imagery taken in recent months by Maxar.
China’s new station, on Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea, will include an observatory with a satellite ground station and is expected to help China ‘fill in a major gap’ in its ability to access the continent.
The station’s position may enable China to “collect signals intelligence from US-allied Australia and New Zealand” and “collect telemetry data on rockets launching from newly established space facilities in both countries,” the report said.
Apart from China, several other countries including the US, the UK and South Korea operate research stations in Antarctica.
However, the attention has turned to China’s potential dual-use of the facilities amid increasing power competition with the US and Western concerns about Beijing’s assertive foreign policy and surveillance capabilities.
“While the station can provide tracking and communications for China’s growing array of scientific polar observation satellites, its equipment can concurrently be used for intercepting other nations’ satellite communications,” CSIS said.
The 5,000-square-meter station is expected to include a scientific research and observation area, an energy facility, a main building, a logistics facility and a wharf for China’s Xuelong icebreakers.
Earlier in February 2020, a team of US inspectors had visited the station, but they didn’t found any military equipment or military support personnel at the site.
Beijing has established four scientific research bases in Antarctica since 1984, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thought the US maintains a larger research presence in Antarctica, China’s footprint is growing at a faster pace.
The report said that the scientific research at the station would focus on physical and biological oceanography, glaciology, marine ecology, zoology, atmospheric and space physics and geology.
China’s fifth station will be 320 km from the McMurdo station, the biggest US facility in the continent.
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