The United States has claimed the ‘spy’ balloon that entered American airspace on 28 January was launched from Hainan Island near China’s south coast. Located on the northern edge of the South China Sea, this 35,000 sq km island, known for its beaches, is home to a major base of the PLA Navy
The United States has claimed that the Chinese “spy” balloon that lingered in American airspace before being shot down on 4 February was launched from Hainan Island near China’s south coast.
As per The Washington Post, US military and intelligence agencies had been tracking the balloon for nearly a week before it entered American airspace in late January.
The agencies initially believed that the balloon would reach the US territory of Guam, but it took an unexpected northern turn.
The balloon traversed to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, miles away from Guam, and then hovered over Canada, after which strong winds drifted the balloon south into the continental US, the officials told The Washington Post.
The officials are now entertaining the possibility that the balloon did not intentionally penetrate the US airspace and its course deviation may have been an accident.
The Chinese foreign ministry has rejected US’ surveillance claims, saying the balloon – roughly the size of three buses – was a “civilian airship” used mainly for “meteorological” research.
However, US intelligence officials are of the view that the Chinese balloon is a part of “an extensive surveillance” programme run by China’s military partly out of Hainan, CNN reported.
Let’s take a closer look inside Hainan Island which has come into the spotlight again through this Chinese balloon saga.
‘Tropical paradise’
Dubbed the “Hawaii of China”, Hainan – meaning “south of the sea” – comprises many islands, including Hainan Island, as per South China Morning Post (SCMP).
As per CNN, this “tropical island paradise”, located on the northern edge of the South China Sea, hosts Boao Forum, an annual meeting of political and business leaders that is known as “Asia’s Davos”.
The 35,000 square km Hainan island, which has a population of 10 million, boasts of the world’s tallest Guanyin statue. Situated near Nanshan Temple in Sanya, the Buddhist Guanyin of Nanshan is embellished with gold, diamonds and other gems, reported SCMP.
China has also been promoting the island province of Hainan, especially its Sanya city, as an international tourist destination.
The island is being developed as the world’s largest free-trade port, with low taxes and more moderate regulations, as per SCMP.
The Wenchang Space Launch Site is located on the northeastern edge of Hainan island, as per CNN.
Important military bases
But, sandy beaches and resorts are not the only things for which Hainan makes headlines.
This southernmost province in China is a “strategically important” island that houses key military bases just like US’ Hawaii, noted CNN.
The southern edge of Hainan is home to a part of the South Sea Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.
According to CNN, the military base in Hainan gives the Chinese navy access to disputed waters in the South China Sea.
It also connects China to the busy shipping route extending from the Middle East, through the Strait of Malacca, to East Asia, SCMP reported.
Hainan also offers bases for PLA’s fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, CNN noted.
The island came to the limelight last September when SCMP reported that Beijing is expanding a military submarine base, adding two new piers (around 240 metres long) to the four existing piers at the Yulin Naval Base off Yalong Bay in Hainan.
Yulin is a major base for the Chinese military, home to the navy’s advanced submarine fleet.
Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank in Beijing, told SCMP that this site of the new submarine piers is likely to replace the original site west of Yalong Bay.
Zhou also said that the old base is expected to be utilised for training submarine crews and the new one would be used for “strategic deployment” of submarines including Type 094 ballistic missile submarines and Type 093 attack submarines, SCMP reported.
“The Yulin Naval Base has been rapidly expanded in just the past two years. It can now reportedly berth up to 16 submarines, both conventional and nuclear, and host two aircraft carriers,” journalist Alex Lo, who covers China and Hong Kong, wrote in SCMP in 2022.
Earlier in 2021, Voice of America (VOA) reported citing military news database GlobalSecurity.org that the PLA Navy has expanded Yulin Naval Base from a “conventional submarine facility into a bay that berths nuclear submarines”.
Analysts said that the base’s proximity to Paracel and Spratly archipelagos helps China to carry out exercises and monitor the movements of other countries, VOA reported.
A Center for Strategic and International Studies report in 2021 claimed that China was setting up new electronic warfare, communications and intelligence gathering facilities in Hainan island, reported CNN.
In 2020, a commercial Earth-observation satellite photographed a Chinese nuclear submarine moving out of a secret underground base in Hainan province.
Radio Free Asia (RFA), a US government-funded international broadcaster, which spotted the photo of the warship said it was one of China’s six modern Type 093 Shang-class attack submarines, reported news.com.au.
The RFA report said the picture “hints at how China can marshal considerable undersea power on the doorstep of the disputed South China Sea”.
As per The Diplomat, Hainan is well-defended and its security is greatly prioritised by Beijing, which as one analyst put is “very sensitive about” it.
Source: First Post