China’s occupation over disputed tolls some 300 kilometers away from Palawan is not just meant to control the South China Sea. It is part of the grand plan of China to be a global space power, a US-based policy research group said.
In its report “Space Threat Assessment 2019,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed a satellite photo of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands on May 6, 2018.
“Three tarp-covered truck-mounted jammers were placed on Mischief Reef in 2018. This type of jamming equipment will most likely affect ships and aircraft opening in the area,” the CSIS said.
China occupied Mischief Reef in 1995, and then later reclaimed and an artificial island equipped with building and military installation. China initially said that the structures were intended as fishermen shelter. When the reef became an island as big as 550 hectares (5.58 sq.km), China denied they are for military use while insisting Mischief Reef is part of its territory.
The CSIS said the satellite imagery on the Mischief Reef is the “first visual evidence of jamming signal” in the Spratly Islands.
The Wall Street Journal reported that aside from Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef also in the Spratly Island chain is equipped with jamming systems targeting communications and radar.
Space technology used to be a domain for civilian and research use. But lately, US security officials realized that their satellites have become vulnerable to attacks.
The CSIS reports that China, Russia, North Korea and other countries already have counter space weapons that can maim the US satellite system.
In 2007, Chinese military scholars wrote that “space dominance will be a vital factor in security air dominance, maritime dominance, and electromagnetic dominance. It will directly affect the course and outcome of wars.”
Vietnam knew about the presence of the jammers and condemned China’s militarization and weaponization. Hanoi insisted that the jamming equipment “violates international law.”
A Chinese technical paper details how China plans to jam GPS signals used by U.S. drones, such as the RQ-4 Global Hawk, over the Spratly Islands and the South China Sea.
The South China Sea Morning Post also reported that Hainan in the southernmost province of China which claims the South China Sea as part of its province hosting the Wengchang Satellite Launch Center with an ionospheric radar.
The radar is primarily for scientific experiments to learn about the Earth’s atmosphere, but China’s radar is also reported to “be capable of influencing the ebb and flow of subatomic particles as far away as Singapore, a distance of over 2,000 (1,200 miles,)” the newspaper said.
“Such a radar could disrupt signals from satellites, cutting off communications or access to satellite networks for those operating in the area,”
