TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China has ramped up undersea mapping operations in waters east and south of Taiwan to advance its ability to seize it, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Chinese research vessels are surveying the subsurface landscape to help its submarines and underwater drones, which could be used to blockade or halt US intervention, Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said.
Surveying around Taiwan increased following an announcement by Japan and the Philippines in May of plans to hold discussions on overlapping maritime boundaries in waters east of Taiwan. The two countries have stepped up defense cooperation in response to what they see as threats from Beijing.
“China is capitalizing on the boundary talks as a pretext for what it likely wanted to do anyway: that is, to ratchet up the pressure on Taiwan,” said Allen Zhang, a Heritage Foundation research assistant. “Beijing has long sought legal cover for its gray-zone tactics—coercive activities short of lethal force—and research vessels fit that mold quite well,” Zhang added.
Su Chih-chieh (蘇志杰), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s Institute of Oceanography, said, “They are launching research ships as fast as dropping dumplings into a pot. Taiwan is having a really hard time catching up right now.”
Taiwan has only five ships actively carrying out its own maritime research. It added two ships in August.
Chen Chung-ling (陳璋玲), president of the National Academy of Marine Research in Kaohsiung, said Taiwanese research efforts demonstrate Taiwan’s commitment to security, WSJ reported. “The more you understand the ocean, the more you can get from it,” she said.
However, Liao Te-yu (陳璋玲), director general of the Taiwan Ocean Research Institute, warned that Taiwan’s research ships are more academically focused and do not necessarily align with defense needs. “We actually understand very little about the waters surrounding us,” Liao said.
China also uses research vessels to locate telecommunications cables, which are another target in a conflict, WSJ cited analysts as saying.
“They’re trying to see what the undersea infrastructure looks like, because they probably want the ability to cut off Taiwan from outside communications if they can as part of a coercion campaign,” Clark said.
WSJ cited a Center for Strategic and International Studies report as saying China-linked research vessels “spent a disproportionately large share of their observed time near critical infrastructure compared with research vessels from 47 other countries.”