Chinese spy ship Xiang Yang Hong 03 has reached India’s strategic backyard to map the Bay of Bengal next to the scheduled Indian Navy’s surface firing exercise.
After the Sri Lankan government denied docking permission, the vessel has been going to the Maldives to replenish fuel, food, water, and personnel rotation. At the beginning of 2024, the ship was scheduled to make a port call in Sri Lanka, but the island nation banned Chinese vessels from docking for a year.
Now, the role is being played by the Maldives, located at the crossroads of trade routes in the Indian Ocean, which has recently been fostering closer ties with Beijing.
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) has indicated that China’s ocean research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 03 is “currently moving into the Bay of Bengal, operating just 120 nautical miles from a scheduled Indian Naval Subsurface firing exercise in the region.
OSINT expert Damien Symon’s assessment indicates that the ship, managed by China’s Third Institute of Oceanography, is just 380 nautical miles from Chennai in India.
While China maintains that its activities in India’s strategic waters are benign, India is wary of them, and rightly so. The strategic community believes that despite being managed by the Third Institute of Oceanography, the ship has links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The presence of the vessel in the vicinity as the Indian Navy conducts sub-surface firing can yield dual-purpose data with clear military ramifications. The survey vessel can get data on seabed mapping, recording hydrological data to understand the profile of the undersea environment, subsea cable intelligence gathering, recording telemetry data of missile firings, and so on. The research that the vessel is conducting in the region would help it to undertake a military mission in the Indian Ocean.
While seismic data is critical in assessing geological conditions, the presence of hydrocarbons, water, and seabed conditions also affect the ability to detect submarines. Research vessels involved in scientific research can also use their instruments for naval reconnaissance, gathering intelligence on foreign military facilities and vessels operating in the vicinity.
