China Deep-Sea Exploration: Intention and Concerns

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the last few decades, given China's growing dependency on the maritime realm, it has shifted its focus from securing borders to the pursuit of national maritime interests. China is overly dependent on the seas for maritime trade, secure energy supply, access to marine resources and access to the resources outside its borders. In this context, deep-sea exploration and capacity building emerge as important indicators of China's growing dependency on and interest in the maritime domain. Beijing's interest in deep-sea exploration and capacity building includes underwater resource exploitation, developing new technology and infrastructure related to deep-sea exploration, and maritime security. Given that China's deep-sea exploration is enmeshed with its larger geostrategic interests outside its borders, it raises a series of concerns for states in its neighbourhood. The military application of these deep-sea technologies is of greatest concern, besides power projection in the regional security domain. This paper seeks to study China's deep-sea exploration and capacity building in the context of technology and infrastructure. The paper covers contested intentions behind China's deep-sea exploration and the implications as well as concerns for China's neighbouring countries.