Source : Indian News Weekly
Maldivian local news outlet Adhaadhoo reported on Sunday that the Indonesian Coast Guard (ICG) stopped a Chinese research ship heading to the capital Male. This was because the ship’s Automated Information System transponder had stopped. Indonesian authorities have taken this step after a Chinese ship switched off its transponder three times between January 8-12 while passing through the country’s territorial waters.
Indonesia chases away Chinese ship going to Maldives! Indonesian coast guard stopped Chinese research vessel heading towards maldives
The US Naval Institute said the Chinese government ship Jiang Yang Hong 03 was stopped by Indonesian coast guard forces in the Sunda Strait area on January 11, the report said. The ship’s crew refused to activate the transponder, claiming that it was broken and therefore could not be activated.
Automated Information System: Transponders are installed in ships so that other ships and coastal authorities can automatically get the ship’s position, its identity and other information.
Chinese ship had switched off its transponder
According to The Asia Times report, the ICG did not try to board the Chinese ship but asked it to leave Indonesia’s Special Economic Zone. According to international maritime law, all ships passing through Indonesian waters are required to have transponders up and running.
Maldives’ Adhaadhu said that maritime traffic monitoring sites had last reported on January 22 that the Chinese ship was in the Java Sea, but where it is currently is not known.
Big revelation in paper regarding Chinese ships
Earlier this month, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published a paper titled: ‘China’s Dual-Use Research Practices in the Indian Ocean’. The paper said that Chinese ships near Chinese military PLA installations turn off the automatic identification system signal for a few hours or days.
The paper said, ‘Your attitude at sea shows danger. Repeated actions such as spoofing (giving false information) or turning off the automatic detection system signal for a long period of time raise serious red flags. “Data obtained from Windward indicates that such activities occur frequently, sometimes near foreign military installations.”
The paper also said that China has developed the world’s largest fleet of civilian research vessels to survey the Earth’s oceans. These ships are for scientific and commercial purposes but they are also being used to further China’s strategic ambitions.
Hidden Reach, a special initiative of CSIS, has identified 64 active research and survey vessels from China. The paper said that more than 80 percent of the 64 active ships operated suspiciously.
Maldives made this claim regarding the Chinese ship
The Chinese ship going to Maldives was revealed by Damien Simon, an open source intelligence researcher. This disclosure came a few days after Maldives President Mohammed Muizzu returned from China. Just a day later, the Foreign Ministry of Maldives confirmed this. The ministry said that the Chinese ship will not do research work in the area of Maldives.
However, Indian geo-strategist Brahma Chellaney says that Maldives’ claim that the Chinese ship will not conduct research in its waters is ridiculous.
In one of his tweets on Twitter, he says, ‘The Muizzu government’s claim that a ship belonging to PLA will not conduct oceanographic research in Maldivian waters is ridiculous because Maldives has no capability to detect such activity at all. Is.’
China is aggressively engaged in mapping the Indian Ocean bed and collecting seismic and bathymetric data to facilitate submarine operations in India’s maritime backyard. And the Maldives, under its new Islamist-leaning, pro-China president, is becoming an enabler.
— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) January 24, 2024
After…
He said China is aggressively engaged in mapping the Indian Ocean floor and collecting seismic and bathymetric data to enable easy navigation of its submarines into Indian waters. He said that Maldives is supporting such activities under the leadership of its Islamic leaning and pro-China President.
Chinese ship was to go to Sri Lanka first
Earlier, China had been keeping its ships in Sri Lankan maritime zone for a long time. India has been objecting to the stoppage of Chinese ships in its neighboring countries including Sri Lanka. India says that Chinese ships stop in neighboring countries and spy on Indian establishments.
In view of this objection of India, Sri Lanka had last year itself imposed a one-year ban on the stoppage of foreign ships in its maritime zone. Before this stop, the Chinese ship going to Maldives was going to Sri Lanka.
