Satellites will tighten Beijing’s lock on the South China Sea
More details have emerged of Beijing’s satellite surveillance plans for the South China Sea, as it tightens its grip on the contested territory.
Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the nation’s largest missile maker, will use its Kuaizhou solid-propellant rockets to launch 10 satellites from Hainan Island, project managers told China Daily.
The Kuaizhou rockets will lift three Hainan 1 optical satellites in 2019 followed the year after by three Hainan 1 satellites and two Sanya 1 multispectral remote-sensing satellites. The orbital surveillance of the South China Sea will be bolstered again in 2021, when two Sansha 1 synthetic aperture radar satellites will be launched.
Yang Tianliang, chief designer of the Hainan satellites, said last week that Hainan administers hundreds of islands and reefs in the South China Sea, so it urgently needs the assistance of space-based platforms to monitor these territories and surrounding waters.
Tensions over Beijing’s island-building in the South China Sea peaked last month with satellite images showing 28 hectares of infrastructure on the Spratly and Paracel islands had been constructed during 2017, including airstrips and military installations.
The US says China has now added more than 1,248 hectares of land to the seven rocks and reefs it occupies in the area – where Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei also have claims. After years of delay spent completing its island-building project, China has just entered negotiations with Southeast Asian nations on a “code of conduct” for the sea. The US and others say Beijing is militarising the maritime territory to bolster its claim to almost the whole South China Sea, a major global trade route and resource-rich territory.
The constellation of 10 satellites will be capable of fully monitoring the South China Sea in real time, helping the country better safeguard its sovereignty, develop the region and deal with contingencies, said the designer Yang.
Xu Guanhua, former minister of science and technology, said that the constellation will also be useful for marine industries, exploring marine resources and protecting ocean environment.