China has installed ground stations for its BeiDou satellite system in the disputed South China Sea island in order to “monitor ships” and “support reliable navigational guidance”, the state media reported.
These ground stations, also called lighthouses, are located on North Reef and Bombay Reef in the Paracel Islands—an area claimed by both Vietnam and Taiwan.
The state-run CCTV report, citing the Maritime Safety Administration, said that the ground stations began operating on Friday to “solve the problem of a blind spot in the country’s shore-based ship AIS in the waters around the Paracels”.
They would “serve as strong support” to monitor ships in the area, for “ecological protection of the islands and reefs of Sansha and to provide safer and more reliable navigational guidance for ships in the South China Sea”, the report said.
Sansha is a municipality that was established in 2012 by China to govern most of the South China Sea.
China’s claims over South China Sea
Beijing claims a vast area of the South China Sea and it has demarcated the area by its so-called “nine-dash line”.
The line comprises nine dashes which extend hundreds of miles south and east from its most southerly province of Hainan, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands, as well as Macclesfield Bank.
Brunei, Taipei, The Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia, all have overlapping claims to parts of the resource-rich South China Sea, one of the busiest waterways in the world.
The waters frequently see tussles between People’s Liberation Army warships and the US Navy when it carries out “freedom of navigation operations” in the area.
Tight control over disputed island
The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is a home-grown navigation satellite designed to compete with the United States-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
Initiated in the 1990s, the satellite system became operational in 2000. Then, in 2012, the navigation system was made operational all over the Asia-Pacific region, and in November 2020, it was launched for global service
Like GPS, BeiDou does not require a ground station to provide general navigation or positioning services. But a nearby ground station could greatly improve accuracy, especially for military purposes.
Source : MicrosoftStart
