China is building a huge "floating island" described as “the world’s first ultra-large marine scientific research platform,” according to Chinese state media. The platform will be operated by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, while it will be constructed and designed by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), which is said to be the world’s largest shipbuilding group, according to CGTN, the state-run news channel of the China Global Television Network. Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding won a bid this September to construct the "world-first platform," with a bid of 2.76 billion yuan (over $413 million), the university noted in a statement last month.
The platform will be the “world’s first floating artificial island for all-weather, long-term deep-sea scientific research,” CGTN said, and is designed to withstand extreme weather while allowing long-term presence at sea, as well as rapid mobility and deployment. The “offshore floating island” will be built with "ultra-strong typhoon resistance, ultra-long stay, and ultra-heavy load," according to the university. The platform has a "semi-submersible dual-hull" design, with a maximum displacement of about 74,000 tons and a capacity of 238 people.
It is also capable of “operating in level 7 sea conditions” and is “safe to withstand level 17 typhoons,” the university stated. China expert Usha Haley, a professor and Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business at Wichita State University who researches multinational corporations and international strategic management, particularly in Asian and emerging markets, told Newsweek that the engineering behind this project is “less novel than the ‘island’ label suggests," however, “the scale, endurance, and mission are new.” She explained: “The semi-submersible twin-hull design comes from the offshore oil-and-gas industry, which has operated platforms of this size for decades." Haley highlighted that a self-propelled platform that can hold station for about four months with up to 238 people on board, as well as lower heavy equipment through a moon pool to around 6,000 meters (about 19,685 feet), and serve as a test bed for deep-sea mining and offshore energy equipment “has never been done before,” adding “that fits a pattern we have documented in our research.” Construction of the platform is expected to begin in 2028, according to CGTN, while it is expected to be fully completed and delivered by June 2030, the university said. According to Professor Haley, “China's state capitalism favors scale and established technology over frontier breakthroughs and treats capital as an instrument of policy.” Haley explained: “China is the world's largest energy consumer and has imported about half of its natural gas.
A deep-sea testing ground for mining and offshore energy equipment provides resource security.” She noted that the latest floating island platform is a major science infrastructure project under the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, which was passed by the National People’s Congress, the Chinese parliament, back in March 2021, and outlines a plan for “national economic and social development and the long-range objectives” through 2035, the Chinese government said. The professor said the plan is “the same system of planning targets, party-appointed leadership, and policy-bank financing that stood behind the state oil companies in our research.” Haley said the latest record development comes with two cautions. Firstly, “China's engineering catch-up is real,” the professor warned, noting, “Chinese state companies now drill Cambrian shale [fine-grained sedimentary rock from the Cambrian period] five kilometers [around 16.5 feet] down without the American partners they learned from.” Secondly, Haley pointed out that “planning targets are not deliveries,” noting that China missed its 2020 and 2030 shale-gas targets and its output remains below 5 percent of the U.S.
The professor noted that the design of the latest research platform “has been validated with a model in Shanghai Jiao Tong's test basin, not at sea, and completion is targeted for 2030. I would read that date as an aspiration.” “The risk is subtler than espionage," Haley said. "In shale, we found that Chinese state capital acted as a selection environment,” and after 2009, patenting shifted toward “the problems of Sichuan's deep, dry, faulted geology.” She noted that the U.S. kept its lead only in categories that mattered to mature American basins.
"A platform that becomes the world's open-sea test site exerts the same pull. Whoever designs equipment to test there, designs for the conditions and priorities China sets.” Another element to note is perception, Haley said. Of the U.S. shale professionals that Haley and her team surveyed, the professor said 84 percent erroneously believed that the U.S. led innovation, while 8 percent named China.
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