Australia would be ‘naive’ to think China’s new Antarctic station not for surveillance, analyst says

Australia should be concerned about the prospect of China using a new research station in Antarctica to assist surveillance operations in the southern hemisphere, according to national security experts.

Satellite imagery collected by the Washington-based thinktank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies shows construction of the station on Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea has resumed for the first time since 2018.

The station is located within New Zealand's historic territorial claim and is close to the border of Australia's claim, which covers 42% of the continent. It is also near the US research station McMurdo, on Ross Island, the largest base in Antarctica.

CSIS believes the new Chinese station will include an observatory with a satellite ground station and will be well positioned to collect signals intelligence over Australia and New Zealand, and telemetry data on rockets launched from Australia's new Arnhem Space Centre.

Peter Dortmans, a senior researcher at the strategic policy thinktank Rand, agreed the location of the station offered China an intelligence-gathering advantage.

"Inexpressible Island is probably in a better position for signals intelligence compared with China's Zhongshan base within Australia's Antarctic territory," he said.

"However, its proximity to McMurdo is significant. As such, we would expect the US will be monitoring the facilities closely and would be well placed to assess any signals intelligence risk."