Underwater station could be a game changer, Chinese scientist says
But Beijing is more focused on developing technology to find natural resources, according to deep-sea researcher
China should lead the way on deep-sea research by realising its goal of building the world’s first manned underwater station, a top mainland scientist says.
“Exploration in both the deep sea and in space started around the 1940s. But while we have already sent many astronauts and rockets into space, global development in deep-sea technology is still far behind,” Liu Xincheng, chief adviser to the deep-sea science and engineering institute at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said on Thursday in Hong Kong, where he was attending a conference on underwater science.
China is the fifth country to develop deep-sea exploration technology – at an ocean depth of 1,000 metres and beyond – after the United States, France, Russia and Japan.
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Liu was part of the Chinese team that sent the Jiaolong manned submersible, which can reach the greatest depths of any in the world, down 7,002 metres in 2012.
