A Chinese government research arm said it has published an atlas of deep-sea mineral deposits, highlighting Beijing’s ambitions to mine the seabed and underscoring its disputed claims to waters that neighboring countries consider their own.
Experts say the maps, in addition to pinpointing deep-sea mineral deposits, give China’s military a complete understanding of the seabed in strategically important waters, giving it an advantage if submarine warfare breaks out.
The announcement this month by the China Geological Survey adds to pressure on other countries that are increasing their own seabed mining efforts to reduce their dependence on China for critical minerals and rare earth elements. Ocean sediments are rich in valuable resources including cobalt, nickel and manganese.
“China is devoting enormous resources to attempting to emerge as a world-leading maritime power,” said Bruce Jones, a naval affairs and foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution. The United States has historically dominated the field of marine science, he said. Now, China is closing the gap, enhancing China’s military capabilities and equipping it with the knowledge needed to fight underwater, Dr. Jones said.
With mapping of this nature, “you can use it for science, and you can use it for war,” Dr. Jones said. “It’s a rare-earth play, it’s a scientific play, and it’s a strategic play at the same time,” he said.
According to material published on the China Geological Survey website, the atlas maps the locations and concentrations of dozens of resources derived from two decades of research and sampling at more than 10,000 locations. The China Geological Survey said the atlas includes the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, where China claims territory that neighboring countries consider its own.
China controls most of the world’s supply of key critical metals and rare earths, which are essential elements in modern weapons and technologies, and the Chinese government recently approved a five-year plan that prioritizes the development of deep-sea minerals. China has used its dominance for political purposes, for example restricting exports to the United States and Japan during disputes with those countries.
Japan is developing its own seabed mining program to reduce its dependence on Chinese supplies. In February, the government said it had successfully recovered rare earth-rich soil from a depth of more than 6,000 metres, a feat praised by Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi as a “world first”. Japan and the United States have committed to supporting each other’s marine mining projects.
The Trump administration has made seabed mining a priority. It hopes to issue mining leases near Pacific Ocean territories such as American Samoa. It also plans to allow commercial mining outside US territorial waters without international approval.
According to Yun Sun, who leads the China Foreign Policy Program at the Stimson Center, a foreign affairs research organization in Washington, China’s mining atlas has strategic importance in strengthening its claim to disputed waters.
There are many international law customs that determine national borders. Continuously occupying and managing an area can strengthen a country’s claim to it.
This means that non-military actions such as science and conservation can be used to gain control over an area, Dr. Sun said. Publicly announcing Atlas could be interpreted as China making a statement that it controls this maritime area.
Chinese deep sea exploration ships seen In the territorial waters of other countries, such as near the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. China has also done it reportedly tested The waters claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines contain seabed mining equipment.
Detailed mapping also helps countries claim additional seabed, said Larry Meyer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea designates a limit of 200 nautical miles from a country’s coastline as an “exclusive economic zone”, where it has exclusive rights over resources, but a country can claim more coastline if it can prove that its continental shelf extends beyond this zone.
This has been an important driver of ocean exploration efforts, Dr. Meyer said. In 2023, the United States made public detailed maps created over the past decade claiming approximately 380,000 square miles of extended continental shelf, including the Arctic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
China has also submitted a proposal to the United Nations to extend its claim to the continental shelf based on geological map evidence, which delineates boundaries that overlap with Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
In the South China Sea (which the atlas does not cover), China has also redrawn boundaries in waters claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines and has taken other steps, including the construction of artificial islands, to support its claims.
Seabed mining is controversial. Critics say that not enough is known about deep sea environments to allow them to be mined safely. Research shows that mining will reduce the abundance of deep sea animals and delay the ecosystem’s recovery. Several countries as well as environmental organizations have called for a moratorium or industry ban.
Chris Buckley Contributed to the reporting.
