China plans massive listening programme at the North Pole after declaring success in Arctic test of underwater device

Despite physical and geopolitical challenges, China planted a listening device in the Arctic Ocean for the first time and says it worked better than expected

‘The opening and commercial use of the Northeast Passage has become a reality. Our polar research started late’: Polar Research Institute of China

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Chinese scientists put China’s first underwater listening device in the Arctic Ocean on floating ice. Photo: Polar Research Institute of China

Published: 6:00pm, 9 Jul 2023Updated: 8:44pm, 9 Jul 2023

China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean, according to the Polar Research Institute of China.

The move is expected to bring further tension to the Arctic region, which is becoming increasingly important in global power plays because of its strategic location, natural resources and the potential for new shipping routes.

The acoustic information collected by the planned large-scale listening network could be used in a wide range of applications, including “subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection and the reconstruction of marine environmental parameters,” the institute said in a study published in the Chinese Journal of Polar Research last month.

“These are some of the hottest issues in the world.”

The Chinese government has conducted several surveys and placed many monitoring devices, including buoys, in the Arctic region but this 2021 trial was the first time it installed a listening device there, the institute said. Photos: Polar Research Institute of China

The Shanghai-based institute is a central government agency that plans and coordinates China’s polar activities.

Chinese scientists and engineers installed the “polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system” on a chunk of floating ice in a remote area of the Arctic Ocean on August 9, 2021.

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