In the world of intelligence, China has tried every means to develop technologies to trick its rivals. While the US Navy was busy in the recovery of debris from the Chinese balloon out of the Atlantic for analysis early in February, China Aerospace Science, and Industry Corporation (CASIC) was forthrightly engaged in setting up a new ground station in Antarctica for its ocean observation satellites, which are currently eight in number and are orbiting in the space for various purposes including oceanographic analysis and resource exploitation.
The new Antarctica ground station will facilitate the transmission of data from these Chinese satellites, said the Global Times in its latest report. But analysts say there are geopolitical connotations to every Chinese move: equipment used for peaceful purposes today could be used for other purposes by Beijing tomorrow. Anthony Bergen of the Australian Strategic Policy in his write up maintains that "given the track record Beijing has in moving rapidly on a broad front, as it was done in the South China Sea, we need to be prepared to respond to a rapid increase in the speed and scale of China’s actions in Antarctica". However, in the backdrop of China’s rapid militarisation of its satellites and overseas ground stations, some analysts argue that Beijing’s move in Antarctica could add to the country’s various command, control, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems.
Ground stations help keep "track of the tens of thousands of satellites and other objects in Earth’s orbit—a capability known as space situational awareness (SSA) that is critical for fighting and winning wars in information-rich battle spaces", the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US-based think tank said in an October 2022 report. China, which describes space as a military domain in its 2015 Defence White Paper, has been setting up extensively a network of satellite ground stations across the world. According to Asia Times, in South America alone, it has 11 stations — two in Venezuela, three in Bolivia, one in Chile, one in Brazil and four in Argentina. Besides, as per The Atlantic, it operates the second-most-sophisticated satellite programmes, next only to that of the US.
As of the end of 2021, as per the November 2022 report of the US Defence Department, China’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance-capable (ISR) satellite fleet had more than 260 systems. But The Atlantic in its latest report said that till September 2022, as many as 562 Chinese satellites were orbiting the Earth and this year, Beijing has a plan to launch more than 200 satellites. In 2022, China’s spending on space programmes was $12 billion, said a report by Statista, a Hamburg-based online platform with specialisation in market and consumer data. Like the US, China relies heavily on the space domain, with constellations of space-borne electronic intelligence (ELINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT) systems plus photo-reconnaissance, imaging and communications satellites. These two countries have also used balloons for surveillance purposes and according to the Time, the popular American magazine, they have been doing so for years. In recent years, China has, however, enhanced the use of balloons for surveillance in the world.
"Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years", the US Department of Defence said in a statement last week after the sighting of the Chinese balloon over Montana, home to the US’s international ballistic nuclear missile silos and strategic bomber bases for several days in the last week of January and the first week of February before being shot down by a US fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina on February 4th.
A Chinese balloon was also sighted over Latin American countries during the time Americans spotted it over their sky. In February 2021, Taiwanese authorities said they discovered balloons deployed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army floating over their self-governing island. Chinese balloons have been also spotted over countries across South Asia, East Asia, Europe, South and North America. During President Donald Trump’s regime too, balloons were spotted near Texas, Florida and Hawaii, as well as the Pacific Ocean Island of Guam, where the US has naval and air force bases, said the Japan Times. Japanese media have also reported two balloons floating over different parts of the country. As per media reports, a balloon was sighted over northeast Japan in 2020 and another one in 2021.
Analysts claim that under Xi Jinping leadership, China has poured hundreds of billions of US dollars in modernising the People’s Liberation Army; it has reorganised the command structure, upgraded everything from warships to missile stockpiles. This includes investing in space and near space area. Defence expert William Kim, a consultant at Washington-based think tank The Marathon Initiative, was quoted by the Japan Times as saying that the near-space area is considered a separate domain by China’s military planners, as this is the region which is "too high for most airplanes, too low for satellites".
For this, a balloon fits the bill as while flying at level lower than a satellite, it can take clearer images than the satellite, which completes one Earth orbit in 90 minutes. This apart, balloons, fitted with electronic devices, can be capable of gathering electronic signals and intercepting communications, say analysts. A CNN report said balloons, as a part of China’s surveillance programme, are in part run out of the country’s Hainan province. The US-based media outlet also said that China has conducted at least two dozen missions across at least five continents in recent years. Interesting times are expecting us, when it comes to space and near-space areas.
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