Why didn't Vietnam buy the Sky Whale to build an island?
The South China Sea has been China's sacred territory since ancient times, and the ancestors of the past generations have multiplied in the South China Sea, leaving a solid footprint on many islands. However, China's weakness in modern times has given neighboring countries an opportunity to seize China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
Among them, Vietnam is even more frenzied, vainly trying to encroach on our territory.
In the past, China's situation in the South China Sea was relatively passive. However, with the continuous improvement of China's national strength, China is now full of confidence in the South China Sea. In particular, with the help of the "Sky Whale", China has successfully used the powerful "map editor" to carry out a series of reclamation and island building projects in the South China Sea, thus reversing the decline of the past.
In 2013, China launched the South China Sea island and reef expansion project, using the self-propelled cutter suction dredger "Tianjing" to successfully expand eight islands and reefs, and on this basis, a complete administrative and command system was established to quickly respond to emergencies.
In contrast, although Vietnam began to build islands by man decades before us, we have surpassed them in modernizing their islands and reefs.
The Sky Whale "built the island so quickly, why didn't Vietnam buy one to expand its territory?" Many people think that the Philippines and Malaysia are the countries that have invaded the most rights and interests in the South China Sea, but it turns out that Vietnam is the one who is quietly expanding behind the scenes.
According to statistics, the Philippines has illegally occupied 8 islands and reefs in China, Malaysia has occupied 5, Brunei has occupied 1, and Vietnam has illegally occupied the largest number of islands and reefs, reaching 29, and the area and number have surpassed other countries.
Vietnam's ambitions are also more pronounced than other countries, with the construction of military installations, elevated platforms, and even the introduction of migrants on the occupied islands and reefs in an attempt to occupy them in a practical way to force China to recognize Vietnam's sovereignty over the islands.
The problem of encroachment and occupation of islands and reefs in the South China Sea has always been a difficult problem for China and Vietnam, and the key to solving it lies in speeding up the construction of islands. In the past, due to the lack of large-scale and systematic islands, China's foothold in the South China Sea was very limited, and it could only stop Vietnam's invasion and occupation through regular coast guard and ** patrols, and the effect was not ideal.
In order to break the deadlock, China has specially developed a self-propelled cutter suction dredger that can quickly build islands for the hydrological environment of the South China Sea - "Sky Whale". The "Sky Whale" has a total length of 127 meters, a width of 22 meters, a power of up to 19,200 kW, and a reamer power of 4,400 kW, which means that in just one hour, the "Sky Whale" can dig up to 4,500 cubic meters of sediment from the seabed.
The emergence of this super dredger undoubtedly provides strong support and guarantee for China's rapid island-building in the South China Sea.
According to the hydrological conditions of the South China Sea, the cutter suction dredger "Sky Whale" officially set sail for the Nansha Islands in 2013 to carry out the island-building mission. In the Spratly Islands, Fiery Cross Island is a large island that has gradually developed from small islands and reefs.
As of October 2014, the total area of Fiery Cross Island reached 07 square kilometers, becoming the largest island in Nansha. By November, the area of Fiery Cross Island had reached 13 square kilometers.
In just 20 months, Sky Whale has built a total of seven islands in Nansha, including Mischief Island, Subi Island, Fiery Cross Island, Huayang Island, Nanxun Island, Dongmen Island, and Chigua Island, demonstrating its amazing island-building speed and strength.
The jewel of Fiery Cross Reef.
The rippling waters of Subi Island.
Explore the beautiful island of Mischief.
The reclamation and expansion of the four small islands in the Spratly Islands stands in stark contrast to Vietnam's illegal reclamation of Spratly Island. Vietnam has been illegally filling Spratly Island in the Spratly Islands since 2016, and so far, it has only expanded by 0An area of 48 square kilometers.
The illegally occupied Spratly Island is inefficient, so why don't they buy a Chinese "Sky Whale"? The ostensible reason is that the General Administration of Customs of China stipulates that large dredgers are controlled products for export and cannot be easily traded, and even if Vietnam is willing to sell them, China will not sell them.
However, this is not the main reason, because if China does not sell, it does not mean that European and American countries do not sell. The Netherlands, Belgium and other countries have many powerful dredging vessels, such as the JDN8069 dredger newly equipped by Belgium in 2017, with a total power of 40,975kW, and its dredging efficiency is not inferior to that of the "Sky Whale".
In the final analysis, the problem is that Vietnam's comprehensive national strength is too weak. Reclamation is a complex system project, which requires comprehensive consideration of multiple steps such as hydrological survey, cofferdam wave protection, dredging and filling, and soft foundation reinforcement, and the purchase of a dredger alone cannot play a decisive role.
In the process of building the island, the dredger JDN8069 is not just about piling up the sediment. The wind and waves in the open sea are very fast, and if the cofferdam is not carried out, the sediment may be washed away the next day.
Even if the sand and gravel content is not completely blown away, the content inside will become too small to live and walk on. A cofferdam is not enough to be fenced off with a few boats of stones, and there is a risk of collapse even in offshore or inland areas where the current is slower.
The technical content of the cofferdam is quite high, not every country can easily master, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei and other places have also had many cofferdam collapse incidents.
This is a schematic diagram showing the structure of the cofferdam on an artificial island, through which we can clearly see the shape and structure of the cofferdam.
Vietnam has tried to illegally expand our South Cornwallis Reef by primitive means, resulting in the expansion of 003 square kilometers of sandbar disappeared without a trace in a typhoon. The lesson of this failure reminds us that the expansion must be reinforced with cofferdams and soft foundations, otherwise it will be in vain.
The reason behind Vietnam's illegal expansion of the South Reef is that it is concerned about China's oil, gas and fishery resources in the South China Sea. However, this process is very expensive, especially island building, in the case of the expansion of Fiery Cross Island, China is expanding to the current 2At 8 square kilometers, 6200 million cubic meters of earth, stone and concrete.
In order to prevent seawater erosion, most of the materials are transported from land, and even concrete water cannot be used directly, but must be transported by land, which makes transportation and construction costs very high.
In addition, there are also the costs of supporting facilities such as machinery, labor, escort, early survey, living materials, and medical care, which are all astronomical.
1.The cost of expanding Fiery Cross Island in Vietnam is likely to be very high, as China's infrastructure and cost control capabilities are world-class. At present, China has spent 50 billion yuan to expand Fiery Cross Island, which is an astronomical amount.
If Vietnam were to expand on its own, the cost would only be higher. Therefore, it can be said that every inch of the island's land is worth a fortune. 2.If Vietnam wants to make a cost by expanding Fiery Cross Island, then they need to steal a lot of oil and gas from the South China Sea of our country.
A barrel of ** is 500 yuan, and a cubic meter of natural gas is 3 yuan. This means that they need to steal 100 million barrels of oil or 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
However, under the close surveillance of the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard, this is almost impossible. 3.The cost of expanding Fiery Cross Island is quite high. China has spent 50 billion yuan to expand the island.
If Vietnam expands on its own, then the cost will be higher. Therefore, it can be said that every inch of the island's land is worth a fortune. Under the watchful eye of the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard, it is almost impossible for Vietnam to expand the island to achieve the cost.
The dispute over the South China Sea has gone beyond a simple territorial struggle to a contest of national strength. With its high GDP, low infrastructure costs and strong scientific and technological strength, China can fully withstand the pressure of a war of attrition for island building.
On the contrary, Vietnam's GDP did not surpass our country's Guangxi until last year, and it is simply not possible to play an equal game with us. Therefore, they can only use the most primitive means to build the island.
Even if Vietnam dares to buy dredgers to carry out large-scale operations in the Spratlys, our navy will resolutely expel them, indicating that China's influence in the South China Sea has far exceeded that of the past, and the project of reclamation and island reclamation is still ongoing.
Although the situation has eased somewhat, we must not ignore Vietnam's provocative behavior, and we must make all-round preparations for war, seek victory while maintaining stability, and resolutely defend our territory in the South China Sea.