A research arm of the Chinese government said it had published an atlas of deep-sea mineral deposits, highlighting Beijing’s ambitions to mine the ocean floor and underscoring its disputed claims to waters that neighboring nations consider theirs.
Experts say the maps, in addition to pinpointing mineral deposits found in the deep ocean, give China’s military a thorough understanding of the seafloor in strategically important waters, providing an advantage if submarine warfare were to break out.
The announcement this month by the China Geological Survey puts pressure on other countries that have been ramping up their own seabed mining efforts, in part to reduce their dependence on China for critical minerals and rare earth elements. Ocean sediments are rich in valuable resources including cobalt, nickel, and manganese.
“China is pouring enormous resources in an effort to emerge as a world-leading oceanographic power,” said Bruce Jones, a naval affairs and foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution. The United States historically dominated in ocean-science fields, he said. Now, China is closing the gap, increasing China’s military capabilities and equipping it with the knowledge needed to fight underwater, Dr. Jones said.
With mapping of this nature, “you can use it for science, and you can use it for warfare,” Dr. Jones said. “It’s a rare-earth play, it’s a scientific play, and it’s a strategic play all at once,” he said.
The atlas, according to materials published on the China Geological Survey website, maps the locations and concentrations of dozens of resources, drawing from two decades of research and samplings at more than 10,000 locations. The China Geological Survey said the atlas included the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, where China claims territory that neighboring nations consider theirs.
China controls most of the world’s supply of key critical metals and rare earths, which are essential ingredients in modern weapons and technologies, and the Chinese government recently approved a five-year plan that lists the development of deep-sea minerals a priority. China has used its dominance to political ends, for example by restricting exports to the United States and Japan during disputes with those countries.
Japan is developing its own seabed mining program, in part to reduce its reliance on Chinese supplies. In February, the government said it had successfully retrieved mud rich in rare earths from depths of more than 6,000 meters, an achievement that Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, hailed as a “world’s first.” Japan and the United States have made commitments to support each others’ seabed mining projects.
The Trump administration has made seabed mining a priority. It hopes to issue mining leases near Pacific Ocean territories like American Samoa. It is also plans to permit commercial mining outside of U.S. territorial waters without international approval.
China’s mining atlas has strategic importance in bolstering its claim for disputed waters, according to Yun Sun, who leads a Chinese foreign policy program at the Stimson Center, a foreign affairs research organization in Washington.
There are a number of international law customs that determine national boundaries. Consistently occupying and managing a territory can strengthen a country’s claim to it.
That means nonmilitary actions, like science and conservation, can be used to exert authority over an area, Dr. Sun said. Publicly announcing the atlas could be interpreted as China making a statement that it commands this maritime domain.
Chinese deep-sea exploration ships have been spotted in the territorial waters of other countries, such as near the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. China has also reportedly tested seabed mining equipment in waters that Taiwan and the Philippines claim.
Detailed mapping also helps countries claim additional seafloor, said Larry Mayer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea sets a boundary of 200 nautical miles from a nation’s coastline as an “exclusive economic zone” where it has special rights over resources, but a country can claim more seabed if it can prove that its continental shelf extends beyond this zone.
This has been a significant driver of ocean exploration efforts, Dr. Mayer said. In 2023, the United States made public detailed maps made over the previous decade claiming about 380,000 square miles of expanded continental shelf, including in the Arctic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
China has also presented proposals to the United Nations to extend its claim to the continental shelf, based on geological map evidence, drawing borders that Japan disputes as overlapping with its exclusive economic zone.
In the South China Sea (which the atlas does not cover), China has redrawn boundaries in waters also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines and has taken other steps, including building artificial islands, to support its claims.
Seabed mining is controversial. Critics say not enough is known about deep-sea environments to safely mine them. Research shows that mining would reduce the abundance of deep-sea animals and that ecosystems are slow to recover. Numerous countries as well as environmental organizations have called for moratoriums or an industry ban.
Chris Buckley contributed reporting.
Sachi Kitajima Mulkey covers climate and the environment for The Times.
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