China intends to launch eight maritime surveillance satellites over the next eight years, a senior official from the National Satellite Ocean Application Service has announced, amid efforts by China to improve its surveillance capabilities in the contested waters of the East and South China Sea.
Jiang Xingwei (蔣興偉), director of the service, said four of the satellites would be used to monitor sea coloration and two to keep track of sea currents which would bring China up to speed with other developed countries on oceanographic surveillance.
Of special interest to other countries involved in territorial disputes with China over islets and waters in the area, including Taiwan and Japan, the other two orbiters are to act as maritime radar satellites to reinforce China’s jurisdiction over those areas.
China currently relies on aircraft and three orbiters to conduct surveillance of its territorial waters and islands — including the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and Scarborough Shoal (黃岩島, Huangyan Island) — but those do no have the ability to lock on fixed locations, Jiang said, adding that the two new maritime radar satellites would remedy that shortcoming.
Two Hai Yang-1 (HY-1) and one HY-2 oceanography satellites were launched in 2002, 2007 and last year respectively. However, their sun-synchronous orbit means that the satellites are to pass over the same location every two to three days.
Jiang said the additions would also bolster China’s remote-sensing capabilities over waters near other contested islands, including the Paracels (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) and Spratlys (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea by augmenting overall surveillance.
The National Development and Reform Commission has already approved the program, Xinhua news agency reported Jiang as saying yesterday. It is not known whether the new satellites are to be from the HY family or from a different type. According to NASA, China plans to launch HY-2B, HY-2C and HY-2D this year, in 2015 and in 2019.
According to an official from the State Oceanic Administration, since its launch three years ago, the China Oceanic Information Network has expanded its coverage from offshore waters to distant areas and now covers about 300,000km2 of ocean.
Satellite imagery and data are used by the China Marine Surveillance to monitor the “legitimate” and “illegal” use of China’s territorial waters and areas within its exclusive economic zone, as well as to provide maritime services with key information on oil spills and emergencies.
‧ Four of the eight satellites are to be used to monitor sea coloration and two to keep track of sea currents.
‧ China plans to launch the orbiters this year, in 2015 and in 2019.
‧ Coverage now encompasses about 300,000km2 of ocean.
Taiwan might be China’s next target after it has “walled off” Hong Kong from the rest of the world with its new national security legislation, Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology fellow Wu Jieh-min (吳介民) said on Thursday. At a seminar organized by the Economic Democracy Union, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Hong Kong Outlanders and the Judicial Reform Foundation, Wu said that the legislation is simultaneously a fig leaf concealing Beijing’s autocratic rule in Hong Kong and a figurative “Berlin Wall,” denying democratic countries access to Hong Kong. Wu said it is evident that Taiwan would be China’s next target. The
SAFETY CONCERNS: A construction company working nearby admitted to negligence in the incident, and is to pay a fine and other expenses related to damages Residents of homes adjacent to an alleyway in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) on Saturday were forced to evacuate their homes after the road collapsed, the New Taipei City government said yesterday. An 80m by 4m area in an alleyway on Wenhua Road (文化路) collapsed at 10:39am near an apartment building construction site where work was being done on the project’s foundation. The incident also ruptured an underground gas pipe and tilted several buildings in the area. Residents would not be able to return to their homes until tomorrow or Wednesday, when repairs are expected to be finished, the city government said. Workers
YOUNGEST PATIENT: Cases of botulism have been only sporadically reported over the past few years, with two in 2015, six in 2016 and none in the past three years The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of infant botulism this year, a four-month-old boy in northern Taiwan, as well as five new cases of Japanese encephalitis confirmed last week. The boy was introduced to homemade solid food in the middle of last month, but began to experience constipation and loss of appetite on June 23, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said, adding that he was taken to the hospital when he developed a fever and shortness of breath on June 25. In the hospital, the boy also experienced a rapid heartbeat, limb
CHALLENGER DEEP: Lin Ying-Tsong was invited by Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo to join him on a 10-hour long trip in the company’s submersible Taiwanese-American Lin Ying-Tsong (林穎聰) last month became the first person from Asia and the 12th in human history to dive into the deepest part on Earth, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Lin, 45, an expert in deep sea acoustics with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, joined US adventurer and Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo, 54, on June 22 in a descent to the central pool of the Challenger Deep, the deepest point of the trench, which lies at a depth of more than 10,900m. The pair made the descent in a submersible named Limiting Factor, a US$37
RSS