China's biggest flotilla of research vessels deployed to the
Antarctic will focus on building the station on the rocky,
windswept Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea, a deep
Southern Ocean bay named after a 19th century British explorer.
Work on the first Chinese station in the Pacific sector began in
2018. It will be used to conduct research on the region's
environment, state television reported.
China has four research stations in the Antarctic built from
1985 to 2014. A U.S.-based think tank estimated the fifth could
be finished next year.
The facility is expected to include an observatory with a
satellite ground station, and should help China "fill in a major
gap" in its ability to access the continent, the Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report this
year.
The station is also well situated to collect signals
intelligence over Australia and New Zealand and telemetry data
on rockets launched from Australia's new Arnhem Space Centre, it
said.
China rejects suggestions that its stations would be used for
espionage.
The two icebreakers, Xuelong 1 and Xuelong 2, the name means
"Snow Dragon" in Chinese, set sail from Shanghai with mostly
personnel and logistics supplies on board.
The cargo ship "Tianhui", or "Divine Blessings", taking
construction material for the station, set off from the eastern
port of Zhangjiagang.
The five-month mission will include a survey on the impact of
climate change.
The two icebreakers will also conduct environmental surveys in
the Prydez Bay, the Astronaut Sea in southeast Antarctic, and in
the Ross Sea and Amundsen Sea in the west.
The mission, China's 40th to the Antarctic, will also cooperate
with countries including the United States, Britain, and Russia
on logistics supply, state media said.
(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo; editing by Robert Birsel)
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