China sends largest fleet to build research station in Antarctica

According to Reuters, China's largest Antarctic research fleet departed on November 1, carrying more than 460 personnel.

The fleet, consisting of two icebreakers, Xuelong 1 and 2, departed from the port in Shanghai. The cargo ship Tianhui, carrying construction materials, departed from Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province.

Trung Quốc đưa đội tàu lớn nhất xây trạm nghiên cứu ở Nam Cực - Ảnh 1. — The launching ceremony of the Xuelong 2 ship in 2018 in Shanghai

The force will build China's fifth research station on Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea, a deep bay named after 19th-century British explorer James Ross.

China began building the research station in 2018, Beijing's first in the Pacific region of Antarctica. The facility will be used for environmental research in the region.

China built four other research stations in Antarctica between 1985 and 2014. A US research institute estimates a fifth station could be completed by 2024.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS - USA) in this year's report said that the new facility will include a satellite observation station and will help China fill a large gap in its ability to access the continent.

The new station is also positioned to collect signals intelligence from Australia and New Zealand, and telemetry data from rocket launches from Australia's Arnhem Space Centre. China has denied suggestions that the stations are being used for spying purposes.

The fleet's mission will last five months and will include surveying the impact of climate change. The two icebreakers will conduct environmental surveys in Prydez Bay and the Astronaut Sea in southeast Antarctica, and in the Ross Sea and Amundsen Sea to the west.

This is China's 40th mission to Antarctica and Beijing will cooperate with the US, UK and Russia in logistics.

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