China wants to build the deep sea base to hunt for minerals. But could it also have a military purpose?
China is planning to build a huge Bond villain-style 'space station' nearly 10,000ft below the waves in the hotly-contested South China Sea.
Beijing has wanted such a base - which will be used to hunt for valuable minerals - for a long time but recently sped up the project.
However, there are fears the project could also house a military base slap bang in the centre of the ocean, which is a huge source of tension in the region.
The project was mentioned in China’s current five-year economic plan released in March and ranked number two on a list of the top 100 science and technology priorities.
Now the Communist nation's Science Ministry have decided to acclerate the ambitious project. No details have been released but an engineering project like this would cost billions to build.
"Having this kind of long-term inhabited station has not been attempted this deep, but it is certainly possible," Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told MSN .
"Manned submersibles have gone to those depths for almost 50 years. The challenge is operating it for months at a time."
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, speaking at a science conference last month, said: "The deep sea contains treasures that remain undiscovered and undeveloped, and in order to obtain these treasures we have to control key technologies in getting into the deep sea, discovering the deep sea, and developing the deep sea."
China claims almost the entire South China Sea. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the waters, through which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year.
China and the United States have traded accusations of militarising the South China Sea as Beijing undertakes large-scale land reclamation and construction on disputed features while Washington has increased its patrols and exercises.
Japanese and Chinese coastguard vessels frequently face off around the islands as both sides press their claims.
Until now neither has dispatched warships to nearby waters, because doing so would inflame tensions and remove a buffer against potential armed conflict.
(Source: Mirror)
