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Why Drones Matter So Much for China to Control Disputed Sea?

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - China is bolstering its lead in resource exploration
   and any conflicts in the South China Sea, a sea disputed by five other
   governments, by stepping up deployment of expendable, cost-effective
   drones, analysts believe.

   Last month the People's Liberation Army exhibited an
   "electronic-warfare variant" of drones that had done just
   reconnaissance missions before, part of an effort to control
   information during any military movement, American research
   organization Center for Strategic & International Studies said.

   In September, a drone network operated by the Chinese Ministry of
   Natural Resources was sent to survey the contested sea's waters and
   remote, uninhabited islets, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment
   said as reported by domestic media. In 2017 Chinese researchers
   christened a drone specifically for maritime transport and
   surveillance.

   Drones can easily spy because, if caught, operators can claim they're
   being used for resource exploration, experts say. Their cheaper than
   radars and other intelligence-gathering tools, causing little loss if
   seized, they add.

   "The drone is of course a very ideal sort of spy," said Alan Chong,
   associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International
   Studies in Singapore "Drones are in a sense more expendable than
   aircraft. If they're shot down, China would raise a protest, but that's
   it."

   Stronger position in South China Sea

   China, hemmed in by other claimant states and monitored by Western
   powers, isn't expected to occupy more features in the
   3.5-million-square-kilometer sea that's prized for fisheries and energy
   reserves.

   But drones along with other quasi-military technology will help it find
   undersea fossil fuels and know quickly if another country is expanding,
   especially near China's existing maritime assets, scholars say.

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