China Unveils Permanent Research Station South of Australia, New Zealand

No other place on Earth is even remotely like Antarctica. The Artic may have glaciers, but Antarctica’s dwarfs them. Copyright Fred J. Eckert

China is unveiling a new Antarctic research station south of Australia that will be open year-round, according to Chinese state-owned media.

Qinling Station is ostensibly designed to study local ecology but could also be used to collect vast troves of signals intelligence from Australia and New Zealand, experts say.

One report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank said the facility has “inherent dual-use capabilities”—it could be used for civilian and military purposes.

“While essential for tracking and communicating with China’s growing array of scientific satellites, ground stations can support intelligence collection,” the report said.

“Importantly, the station’s position may enable it to collect signals intelligence from U.S.-allied Australia and New Zealand and could collect telemetry data on rockets launching from newly established space facilities in both countries.”

To that end, the report said the new facility was part of China’s “broader pursuit of global great power status.”

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said the facility was built “in line with international rules and procedures.”

China Pushes ‘Military-Civilian Mixing’

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long sought to project power through the polar regions to gain control of rich natural resource stores and strategically important sites for monitoring and controlling emerging global shipping lanes.

Qinling’s location also grants it proximity to the U.S.-led McMurdo Station, Antarctica’s largest permanently inhabited community, from which it could also collect intelligence.

The facility was expected to include an observatory with a satellite ground station, although photographs of the station didn’t reveal the presence of a satellite facility. Chinese state media reported, however, that Qinling has “satellite communication systems.”

Concern about the facility stems from the CCP’s pursuit of a national strategy that aims to militarize the nation’s scientific facilities and renders civilian research of secondary consequence to political gain.

To that end, the CSIS report notes that the most recent edition of an influential Chinese military textbook observes that “military-civilian mixing is the main way for great powers to achieve a polar military presence.”

The military textbook also says that the regime should “give full play to the role of military forces in supporting polar scientific research and other operations.”

The episode is just the latest CCP effort to expand infrastructure capable of intercepting vital signals intelligence from the United States and its allies. Last year, the Biden administration raised concerns about a proposed CCP spy facility in Cuba that could be used to intercept Americans’ private communications.

Similarly, the regime has made an effort to seize majority shares of ports around the world, thereby granting itself new military ports of call and spreading the use of LOGINK, a Chinese logistics management system used to intercept shipping data from nations around the globe.