TORMENTING TRUMP

China to build secret South China Sea underwater ‘observation station’ to spy on passing ships in move that risks US wrath

Concerns growing that sensors will be laid on ocean floor to detect warships and submarines

By Patrick Knox and Debra Killalea for news.com.au

1st June 2017, 12:11 pm

Updated: 2nd June 2017, 1:40 pm

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BEIJING is building an underwater observation system across the disputed East and South China seas in a bid to military control the region, experts warn.

Chinese officials are billing it as a peaceful maritime research facility for environmental purposes.

CCTV

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This still from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV shows what some allege is underwater spying equipment

CCTV

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Nothing to see here …China said it is merely wanting to map the ocean for environmental reasons

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The contested South China Sea

But others fear it’s really an undersea spy hub as part of biggest Pacific land and sea grabs since the Japanese invasions of 1930s and 1940s.
The £230 million project will take five years to build and is set to transform China into an ocean power.
Jian Zhimin, dean of School of Marine and Earth Sciences, Tongji University told CCTV: “The devices will be placed down on the seabed through optical cables, in other words, build a laboratory undersea to collect and send data back to us.”

China planning secret underwater ‘observation station’ in the South China Sea to monitor ships and aircraft

It will be capable of around-the-clock, real-time, high-definition, multiple interface and 3D observations.
But Carl Thayer, a security expert at the University of New South Wales told CNN China could use the network to lay sensors designed to detect warships and submarines.
He said: “This would be of direct concern to the United States and other regional states that operate submarines.”