TAIPEI, TAIWAN —
An underwater observation network planned as the first project of its kind in the South China Sea will reassert Beijing’s sovereignty over the disputed body of water while offering the country information valuable for oil exploration, mineral searches and possible military uses.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Acoustics and Tongji University in Shanghai will build a “long-term observation network” covering the South China and East China seas, the state-controlled Global Times online reported this week. The institute could not be reached for comment this week.

The government’s China Oceanic Information Network cited an academy scholar on its website Saturday saying the platform would provide real time seabed information as well as explore its chemistry, physics and biology “for the comprehensive needs of multiple applications.”

Chinese control

The observation platform will remind five rival claimants to the South China Sea, plus the United States, of the extent of Chinese control, experts say.

Analysts expect the network to take shape as a physical underwater platform with a series of cables extending back onshore to China. It could collect data for military intelligence, undersea mineral gathering or seabed oil drilling.

“It’s a way for them to extend their control and to prove their authority over that area,” said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He expects protests from other countries

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