The manned deep sea platform would sit 9,800 feet under disputed waters in the South China Sea, and would be a key resource in China's offshore mining efforts, according to a Chinese Science Ministry presentation recently viewed by Bloomberg. Dozens of crew members would be able to survive underwater for up to a month at a time on the station.

Little is publicly known about the project, but China included the construction of an oceanic base in its five-year economic plan, and deep sea exploration was a key priority under the country's Scientific Innovation 2030 initiative. So far, no one has ever attempted to man an underwater station at this depth for an extended amount of time.

In 2012, China announced its intentions to build a mobile, nuclear-powered underwater mining station that would house a crew of 33 people for two months. The Pacific Ocean base was proposed by the China Ship Scientific Research Centre, and likely secured backing from the nation's 863 Program, a fund known to bankroll military R&D projects. Whether this station has ties to the South China Sea platform is unclear.

Territorial claims in the South China Sea. Image: Wikipedia

President Xi Jinping has not been coy about his efforts to assert dominance over the highly disputed waters. China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines are currently locked in a conflict over territorial and jurisdictional claims to the region's potential wealth of natural resources. The South China Sea is believed to hold an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and also possesses one-third of the world's shipping routes. Approximately $5.3 trillion of total annual trade passes through the South China Sea.