The Washington Times: China has spent hundreds of billions of dollars for a planned deep-sea platform in disputed waters near the Spratly Islands.
Engineers with the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation plan to create a lab nearly 10,000 feet below the surface of the South China Sea. The move will further rile Vietnam and the Philippines, which contest China’s growing presence in the region.
“Having this kind of long-term inhabited station has not been attempted this deep, but it is certainly possible,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told attendees at a national science conference last month that accessing raw materials found at great oceanic depths was of utmost importance to the nation.
“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,” the president said, the website reported.
