China spent $ 22 million to study the East Sea

The meeting in Shanghai last 26 and 27 January of Chinese oceanographers, including Chinese expatriates, focused on discussing the project named deep research in the South China Sea (Viet South called East Sea. As the name suggests, this project focuses on areas of approximately 3.5 million square kilometers and a maximum depth limit of 5.5km that Chinese authorities consider to be under their management.

The project is chaired by researcher Wang Pinxian, a senior scientist in China at Tongji University in Shanghai. The team can use the Jiaolong dedicated diving vessel capable of diving to a depth of 7km. Last July, the ship sank to a depth of 3.8km. Expected this year, they will test this vessel at a depth of 5km and reach the design goal next year.

The researchers said that the South China Sea research project was formed after a study conducted by Dayang Yihao in 2007 in a lesser known area called the Southwestern India. Dayang Yihao scientists have discovered copper, lead and zinc deposits. It is worth noting that, immediately after the international committee on the continental shelf issued regulations on ocean mining rights, the Chinese side immediately applied to exploit.

A researcher on Dayang Yihao, oceanographer Lin Jian of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, is leading a sub-project in this South China Sea research project to study constructivism. continent in the South China Sea. This will help explain the formation of the sea, the surface of the seabed. The second part of the project is to study the seabed and ancient climate, following Dr. Wang's 1999 study in this area. Despite controversy over sovereignty, research results will attract the attention of the oil and gas industry.

China is the fifth country in the world to be able to build submerged ships more than 3.5km.
In the photo: a new submarine is being built.Photo: THX

Jian Zhimin (Tongji University) and colleagues hope that from the results of the study, sediment will read the evolution of temperature, rainfall and sea level in the past. Thereby, they can understand more about the Asian monsoon climate. The scientists also studied the western Pacific ocean currents, with an average temperature of 290C. It is thought that this ocean currents affect the monsoon and El Nino phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean.

The third part of the research project on biology, especially deep creatures, by scientists including Jiao Nianzhi (Xiamen University in Fujian Province) and Tian Jiwei, China Ocean University in Qingdao, Shandong province.

The total project cost is about US $ 22 million allocated by the National Fund for Natural Sciences in eight years. This is not the only unit in China studying oceanography. It is expected that China will invest about $ 60 million to build a deep-sea technology center and a seabed surface observation system with a budget of up to 1.4 billion yuan.

Denying the intention to study to serve territorial expansion, Chinese scientists affirmed the purpose of research to serve human understanding. They also said that the project focuses on basic scientific issues rather than searching for oil or minerals. This is not wrong, just as it is for many seafarers under the patronage of the Royal Navy, when the country fluttered on the sea in previous centuries. If Chinese oceanographers were the first to discover the mysteries of the South China Sea, Chinese businesses inevitably had an advantage to turn these knowledge into commercial and naval advantages. China will have certain advantages to protect maritime interests.

So when reporting on this project, the Economist likened the naming and scale of China's project as the Roman empire once called the Mediterranean by the name Mare Nostrum, which means their sea. me.