China Responds as Territorial Dispute With US Ally Goes Public
Beijing has pushed back at South Korean concerns over a massive steel structure in the Yellow Sea that has raised alarm bells in Seoul
The topic has resurfaced in local media following U.S.-based maritime analyst group SeaLight's review of new satellite images of the former oil drilling rig, as first reported in a Newsweek exclusive.
The structure, installed in 2022, is the latest of several Chinese structures to be introduced in the Provisional Measures Zone-an area where China and South Korea's exclusive economic zones overlap.
The PMZ was created under a 2000 agreement between the neighbors that bars activities unrelated to fishing and navigation, pending negotiations to establish permanent maritime boundaries.
Newsweek reached out to the South Korean Embassy in the U.S. and the Chinese Embassy in South Korea with emailed requests for comment.
South Korean officials have voiced objections after China expanded the structure without consulting the other party.
Seoul is likely also concerned the jack-up rig-so named for the three legs that can be lower to the seafloor-could mark a semipermanent presence and gradual effort to shift the status quo in China's favor, echoing that country's expanding footprint in the maritime zones of the Philippines and Southeast Asian neighbors.
China insists the facility is there to support aquaculture operations, such as those being carried out nearby by deep-sea farm Shen Lan 2 Hao, or Deep Blue No. 2.
"The aquaculture facilities set up by Chinese company in the PMZ do not contravene the agreement between China and the ROK [Republic of Korea]," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during Monday's regular press briefing.
He said China has "shared relevant information and maintained communication" with South Korea through the official channels and called on the country to "view this in an objective and reasonable manner."
The official also stressed the neighbors are moving forward with negotiations and "actively carrying out cooperation" in the zone. The structure could house as many as 100 people, a South Korean Fisheries Ministry official told local media, citing technical specification of the former oil rig.
According to estimates from SeaLight, a Stanford University-affiliated maritime analysis initiative, the structure is roughly as long as a football field and about 60 percent wider.
It is equipped with a helipad and a radome, which typically encases an antenna. "South Korean authorities may suspect there is more happening there than just aquaculture, such as signals intelligence operations," SeaLight director Ray Powell previously told Newsweek.
Yet so far, China has rebuffed South Korean attempts to gather more information. In late February, a research ship and a South Korean coast guard cutter were intercepted by the Chinese coast guard as they approached the rig to investigate.
During the two-hour standoff that followed, the Chinese vessels became increasingly confrontational, sailing close and on multiple occasions cutting across the bow in a bid to block their Korean counterparts, according to ship-tracking data based on the vessels' AIS signatures, a broadcast of locations designed to avert collisions.
Kang Do-hyung, South Korean minister of Oceans and Fisheries, was quoted by the Korea JoongAng Daily: "We regard proportional responses as a very serious matter from the perspective of protecting maritime territory, and [our] government will respond jointly at the national level."
The PMZ structures are sure to feature when Chinese and South Korean representatives meet for talks this month. Kang said Seoul is reviewing "proportional" countermeasures to employ if China fails to be more forthcoming about the rig and its intended purpose.
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