Washington: New satellite images show China is expanding a military submarine base in the South China Sea. Sentinel-2A satellite imagery captured on Monday at Yulin Naval Base in Yalong Bay in China's southern Hainan province shows two new piers, each about 240 meters (787 feet) in length.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has an important base in Yulin, which also houses the Navy's modern submarine fleet. Due to its location, the PLA South Sea Fleet has access to the South China Sea as well as the busy shipping lanes that connect the Middle East to East Asia via the Straits of Malacca.
According to an earlier report in the South China Morning Post based on sources, the base has been growing over the years, including the construction of a dry dock for the Type 002 aircraft carrier. The only Type 002 aircraft carrier in the fleet so far is Shandong.
According to satellite imagery from that time, work began in March as a land reclamation. Two new piers, one to the south and the other to the north of the existing four, had mostly taken shape by the end of July. The Yulin base was still in use by submarines while construction was underway.
According to Zhou Chenming, a researcher at the Yuan Wang Military Science and Technology Think Tank in Beijing, the location of the new submarine piers could replace the original site, which was west of Yalong Bay and closer to the city of Sanya.
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He claimed that because it is located diagonally from the resorts, the original site is poorly located. "When the Hainan government began soliciting foreign investment to advance Sanya's tourism in the 1980s and 1990s, it had no understanding of security issues."
China is promoting the tropical Hainan island, and especially Sanya, as a top vacation destination with beaches and resorts for tourists visiting from abroad.
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According to Zhou, the new base will be used for strategic deployment of submarines such as Type 094 ballistic missile submarines and Type 093 attack submarines, while the old base will be used for submarine crew training. The Type 093 design submarine will gradually replace the older and less powerful Type 091 model.