As Beijing locks horns with a number of countries over the islands and waters of the East and South China Sea, China has launched a program to greatly increase its remote-sensing capabilities through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), reports said yesterday.
The State Council last year approved a 10-year “national marine zoning” program to establish integrated, three dimensional, high-precision monitoring of China’s maritime areas. As part of China’s 12th five-year plan, which runs through to 2015, the State Oceanic Administration has been ordered to increase its remote-sensing capabilities through the acquisition and deployment of UAVs, pilot training and the construction of support infrastructure, Xinhua news agency reported.
In addition to increased surveillance of coastal waters, the UAVs are to also monitor waters under Chinese jurisdiction — including the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), the Paracel Islannds (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) and the Spratly (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) archipelago in the South China Sea — over which China has engaged in territorial disputes with a number of neighboring states including Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
According to the report, the UAVs are also to be used to conduct surveillance near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea — the object of an escalating dispute since Sept. 11 after the Japanese government announced the purchase of three of the islets comprising the potentially resource-rich archipelago. Taiwan, Japan and China all claim sovereignty over the islets.
Although China already uses space-based sensors to monitor its waters, UAVs provide much greater mobility and precision (down to 0.1m), and can loiter over a targeted area providing constant and real-time imaging. This is a major advantage over space orbiters, which, because of their altitude can only scan the same location every two or three days, thus minimizing the effective monitoring of fixed and moving targets.
At present, China relies mostly on satellites and manned aircraft to conduct maritime surveillance.
Japanese media reported last month that the US had agreed to use some of its Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk drones — deployed at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam since September 2010 — to conduct surveillance over parts of Japanese territory and near the Diaoyutais, known as the Senkakus in Japan.
In recent years the Chinese military as well as law enforcement agencies have acquired and developed a number of unmanned vehicles, including fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. The People’s Liberation Army Navy, and civilian maritime safety agencies, have also worked to actively integrate ship-based UAVs to their operations.
In related news, images released by Xinhua on Saturday indicated that J-10B and Sukhoi Su-30 all-weather combat aircraft had been dispatched to augment forces operating in the East China Sea Fleet.
This development occurs as the East China Sea Fleet held a tri-service landing drill which involved land, navy and air forces that simulated a landing attack. Dozens of landing ships took part in the exercise, with forces breaking rival army blockades and transporting troops to a landing area.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS