Are China’s civilian satellites being used to spy on a Japanese airbase?
- Weibo account posts photos of base Japan uses to expel foreign aircraft – mostly Chinese, and nearly always near the disputed Diaoyu Islands
- The Earth observation satellites offer strategic ambiguity, analyst says
Three animated GIFs were posted on microblogging platform Weibo on Thursday by an account called China Aerospace – also the name of the Chinese space programme’s main contractor. The account is not officially that of the company, but features news and videos closely related to its work.
The GIFs showed planes taking off from and landing at a Japanese air force base in Naha, in southern Japan’s Okinawa prefecture.
A zoomed-in image showed more than 10 planes stationed at the Japan Air Self-Defence Force base, and vehicles could be seen driving past the base.
The images were credited to Chang Guang Satellite Technology, China’s first commercial remote sensing satellite company, which owns the Jilin-1 satellites. The three images were taken on December 14, according to the Weibo post.