Latest news with #AsiaMaritimeTransparencyInitiative
India.com
4 days ago
- Politics
- India.com
Runways, Missile Shelters, Aircraft Hangars… Satellite images reveal China's Military Buildup in…, H-6 bombers are placed in…, US now plans to…
Beijing: In a major development, the Chinese Navy is reportedly expanding its presence in the South China Sea by establishing a network of military bases spread over 3,200 hectares in this disputed maritime region. The claim has been made by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), which monitors maritime security issues in Asia, based on satellite images of Mischief Reef. The satellite images show a large runway, missile shelters, massive aircraft hangars, and several high-level military infrastructures—resembling a city. In a conversation with ABC, AMTI's Gregory Poling said that China has placed 72 fighter jet hangars across three major island bases equipped with ports and long runways. In addition, there are sites for surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles, radar sensing, and communication infrastructure. Here are the findings of AMTI: According to AMTI, China controls 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands, including seven in the Spratly Islands. Four have been fully developed into naval and air bases. China also has control over Scarborough Shoal, which it seized in 2012. It is important to note that the China has not built any facilities on this disputed site. Satellite images from March this year reveal that China has deployed two advanced H-6 long-range bomber aircraft in the disputed Paracel Islands of the South China Sea. These images show the bombers stationed on Woody Island, marking their first visible presence there since 2020 and highlighting Beijing's growing military footprint in the region. What is China's motive? For the US military bases located in the region, the H-6 bombers are the biggest threats. Last year, these bombers were deployed during military exercises around Taiwan. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, China's Southern Theater Command, which is responsible for the South China Sea, operates two regiments of H-6 bombers. Beijing claims control over most of the South China Sea, a stance that conflicts with the territorial claims of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled that Beijing's claims had no legal basis, but China rejected the ruling outright.
India.com
5 days ago
- Politics
- India.com
Runway, missile shelter, aircraft hangar and lot more; China's mammoth military city in South China Sea revealed by secret satellite pictures
(Image: Videograb/ New Delhi: The Chinese Navy is increasing its presence in the South China Sea. China has spread its feet in this disputed water area with a network of military bases spread over 3,200 hectares. It has even placed some nuclear bombers here. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), which monitors maritime security issues in Asia, has made this claim based on satellite pictures of Mischief Reef. What do satellite pictures show? Satellite pictures show China's huge runway, missile shelter, large aircraft hangar and many high-level military infrastructures. It looks like a city. AMTI's Gregory Poling told ABC that China has placed 72 fighter jet hangars on three large island bases with ports and large runways. Apart from this, bases for surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, radar sensing and communication infrastructure are included. What is the status of China's control over the islands? According to AMTI, China controls 20 posts in the Paracel Islands, including seven in the Spratly Islands. Four of these have been fully developed as naval and air bases. China also controls Scarborough Shoal, which it occupied in 2012. However, it has not built any facilities at this disputed site. Satellite images from March this year show that China has landed two of its advanced H-6 long-range bombers in the disputed Paracel Islands of the South China Sea. These pictures revealed bombers stationed on Woody Island, appearing there for the first time since 2020 and highlighting Beijing's growing military presence in the region. What is China's motive? The US military base located in this region sees H-6 bombers as a potential threat. They were deployed in manoeuvres around Taiwan last October. These have flown close to the USA for the first time in July last year. According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, China's Southern Theater Command, responsible for the South China Sea, operates two regiments of H-6 bombers. China claims control over most of the South China Sea. This clashes with the claims of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled that Beijing's claims had no legal basis, but China rejected it.
The Independent
01-08-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Satellite images reveal alarming scale of China's military build-up in disputed waters
China is bolstering its presence in the South China Sea with a 3,200 hectare network of military bases, including some capable of launching nuclear bombers, according to new satellite images. The latest satellite images of Mischief Reef by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), which tracks maritime security issues in Asia, show sprawling runways, missile shelters, large aircraft hangars amid several high-level military infrastructure resembling a well-defined city. 'They include harbours, large runways, more than 72 fighter jet hangars across the three big island bases, surface-to-air missile and anti-ship cruise missile emplacements, and a lot of radar, sensing and communications infrastructure,' Gregory Poling, director of the AMTI, told ABC. China is now in control of 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands and seven in the Spratly Islands, according to the AMTI. Out of these, four have been turned into fully operational naval and air bases. China also controls Scarborough Shoal, which it seized in 2012, via a constant coast guard presence but it has not built any facilities on the disputed feature. China claims sovereignty over nearly all the South China Sea, including areas claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. A 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal found Beijing 's sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision that was rejected by Beijing. Beijing maintains its military expansion in the region is defensive, arranged to protect what it says are its sovereign rights amid opposition from Asian countries that have their own claims. Mr Polling said these bases are the 'result of the quickest example of mass dredging and landfill in human history'. In May this year, China landed two of its most advanced bombers in the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea, as seen in satellite imagery. The images reportedly showed long-range H-6 bombers on Woody Island in the Paracel islands, marking the first time China's most advanced bombers were seen since 2020 and a signal of Beijing's growing military capabilities. "China's long-range bombers don't need to be on the Paracels so it does appear to be omni-directional signalling by Beijing against the Philippines and against the US and other things that are going on," said Collin Koh, a defence scholar at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The H-6 bombers are seen as a potential threat to US bases in the region and were also seen deployed in the war games around Taiwan last October. They flew close to the US mainland in July last year for the first time. China's Southern Theatre Command, which covers the South China Sea, maintains two regiments of the bombers, according to the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. The bombers are generally kept at heavily fortified bases on the Chinese mainland, where they would have more protection in a conflict from US attacks in conflict scenarios.
ABC News
29-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Intelligence reveals scale of China's base-building in the South China Sea
China has built a 3,200-hectare network of island military bases in the South China Sea, some of which are now capable of launching nuclear bombers, intelligence reveals. The latest satellite images tracked by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) show the true extent of China's rapid expansion across the region. Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said the base development was alarming for Australia and regional allies like Japan and the US. "China has a lot of military infrastructure on these bases now," Mr Poling told the ABC. "They include: harbours, large runways, more than 72 fighter jet hangars across three big island bases, surface-to-air missile and anti-ship cruise missile emplacements, and a lot of radar, sensing and communications infrastructure. "These bases are the result of the quickest example of mass dredging and landfill in human history." China now has 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands and seven in the Spratly Islands. Four of those are fully operational naval and air bases. Imagery captured in May this year, and first reported by Reuters, revealed the deployment of two Chinese H6K nuclear-capable bombers on Woody Island, in the Paracel Archipelago. Dr Abdul Rahman Yaacob, a research fellow at Lowy's South East Asia Program, said the bases were "extremely concerning" for Australia. "These are long 3,000-meter runways that China has built, clearly with the intent to deploy advanced H6K bombers. These bombers can launch missiles within range of Australia." "Three of the bases in the Spratly island chain are now capable of landing those bombers, too," he told the ABC. China also controls Scarborough Shoal, which it seized in 2012, via a constant coast guard presence. "China is trying to turn the area into a Chinese lake," Dr Yaacob said. China considers the islands to be a legitimate extension of its territory, claiming historic rights to the South China Sea. According to the United Nations and international law, the bases are unlawful. That is a position that the Australian government backs. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says China's conduct in the South China Sea is "deeply concerning." China occupied virtually zero dry land in the South China Sea at the start of the 2010s. "Since then, China has created seven military bases on the Spratly Islands, 800 or so miles [1,300 kilometres] from mainland China's coast, some of which have airstrips and deepwater ports," Mr Poling said. CSIS analysis of one of those bases, at Mischief Reef, shows combat aircraft hangars, missile shelters and high-frequency radar systems. It is a level of detail that provides a clearer understanding of China's capabilities in the region. "China can see and hear and communicate across the whole South China Sea in a way that nobody else, including the United States, can," Mr Poling said. "One of the bases could hold all of the United States's Pearl Harbour Naval Base in its lagoon, and almost all of Washington DC can fit inside the lagoon at Mischief Reef." The South China Sea is one of the world's most contested locations, where more than $3 trillion of trade passes through each year. "What was an occasional point of friction between China and its neighbours has now become a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week campaign of coercion. It's made possible by that island-building spree," Mr Poling said. China has had a presence in the Paracel Islands Chain since the late 1950s. It then took up its first outpost in the Spratlys in the late 1980s. "But these were tiny bases … think of pillboxes on stilts," Mr Poling said. "China can now see and hear pretty much everything that takes place in the South China Sea. It's an impressive capability." The team Mr Poling leads has been documenting the island build-up for the last decade. They have published their findings online. It reveals the scale and capability that China has developed. It is not just China that has been building bases in the South China Sea. Vietnam is also rapidly building bases in response to China. Five nations occupy nearly 70 disputed reefs and islets spread across the South China Sea. Besides China, they are Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan. They have built more than 90 outposts on these contested features. "These countries, particularly in South East Asia, are pushing back, with some success, against China's coercive tactics," Mr Poling said. "But China clearly has an upper hand. "It's actually closer to Australian territory than it is to Chinese territory at its southernmost end." Brunei also lays claim, but has not built bases on the reefs. China lays claim to territory in the South China Sea according to what is known as the "nine-dash line". China's Communist Party created the nine-dash line map in 1953. The nine-dash line refers to a line consisting of nine dashes depicted in various official and unofficial Chinese maps. It extends off the coast of China's Hainan Island and runs close to the coast of Vietnam, deep into the South China Sea, enclosing the Spratly Islands. "The dash line is a revisionist historical fantasy by China's Communist Party, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous," Dr Yaacob said. "What we have seen is that these historical narratives can have real-world consequences, look at Russia's idea of Ukraine belonging to its territory and what has happened there with a full-scale invasion." Countries, including Australia, have been conducting freedom of navigation exercises in the region with allies like Japan. In 2023, Australian Navy Divers were injured when a Chinese warship deployed strong sonar pulses. China has also deployed military-grade lasers against Royal Australian Air Force aircraft, which risk blinding pilots. China and Vietnam have destroyed thousands of acres of coral reefs due to base building in the South China Sea, according to the US Government and the CSIS. The means and methods China has employed to construct so many bases in such a short span have relied upon a specialised sea-dredging technology. The artificial islands were created by dredging sand onto reefs, which were then concreted to make permanent structures. Large vessels hoover up coral reefs and then churn that material indiscriminately, providing the sand for the islands. "It's complete indiscriminate destruction," Mr Poling said. "China has destroyed more than 4,000 acres of reef in the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which it has covered over. It's severely destroyed at least another 20,000 acres of the seabed and reefs that it's dug up to make the sand. "That is easily, and there's not even anything comparable, the most egregious intentional destruction of coral reefs in human history." The destruction of the coral reefs led to the then-US Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Harry Harris, to coin the island chains China's "Great Wall of Sand". A US government report found that China's dredgers deposited sand and gravel on top of about 13 square kilometres of coral reefs, a process that destroys the coral underneath. Frank E Muller-Karger, professor of biological oceanography and remote sensing in the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, explained that in the process of island building, the sediment deposited on the reefs "can wash back into the sea". "This could form plumes that can smother marine life and could be laced with heavy metals, oil, and other chemicals from the ships and shore facilities being built." One study estimated that China (65 per cent) and Vietnam (33 per cent) were behind 98 per cent of all coral reef destruction in the South China Sea.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Beijing sends heavy bombers to disputed islands in South China Sea
China has sent two of its recently upgraded H-6 bombers to a disputed island in the South China Sea, satellite images have revealed. The photographs, taken by Maxar Technologies, show the two aircraft on an airstrip on Woody Island in the Paracel archipelago on May 19. The long-range bombers date back to the 1950s and were modelled on Soviet-era planes, but have been modernised and can now carry weapons including hypersonic and nuclear missiles. They are considered China's most advanced bombers, and it is the first time they have been on the island in five years. The photographs also show two Y-20 transport aircraft and a KJ-500 early warning plane around Woody Island on the same day. The KJ-500 is believed to be vital to China's ability to carry out increasingly complex air and sea operations. Located almost equidistant from China and Vietnam – about 220 miles from China and 250 miles from Vietnam – the Paracel Islands have long been at the centre of disputes between the two countries, which both claim sovereignty over the archipelago. The islands are believed to sit on top of large natural gas and oil reserves, though there has been limited exploration of the area. In 2012, China built a city called Sansha on Woody Island, which Beijing uses to administer control over the rest of the Paracels as well as the Spratly Islands further south. In the years since, Woody Island has grown into an urban hub, with a population of about 2,300 as well as an airport, schools, a courthouse, a cinema and hospitals. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative in the US estimates that China has at least 20 outposts across the Paracels, three of which have harbours that can dock large numbers of vessels and five of which have helipads. The Paracel Islands also form a strategic triangle with the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing seized from the Philippines in a tense standoff in 2012. In April, during the Philippines' annual exercises with the US called Balikatan, four men planted a Chinese flag on Sandy Cay, a sandbank in the Spratly Islands, leading to a heated exchange with Manila. A month earlier, two H-6 aircraft were seen flying over the Scarborough Shoal shortly before Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, visited the Philippines. Vincent Kyle Parada, a former defence analyst at the Philippines navy, previously told The Telegraph that it would make sense for Beijing to assert its sovereignty over these territories. 'Having a Chinese presence in each of those features will allow [Beijing] a disproportionate amount of control when it comes to asserting its influence over South China Sea, whether it's through economic disruption, freedom of navigation or safety at sea,' explained Mr Parada. The timing of the latest H-6 deployment to the Paracels is unlikely to be a coincidence. A British aircraft carrier is also expected to deploy to the South China Sea next month. The Shangri-la Dialogue, considered Asia's largest defence summit, begins on Friday, though China's defence minister is reportedly not attending. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
