A new satellite will help China, with its increasingly aggressive flotilla of ships and ready-to-scramble fighter jets, to monitor and cover the troubled waters of the South China Sea. The launch of the new satellite coincides with China adopting an aggressive posture on the South China Sea following an international tribunal‘s ruling in July that Beijing doesn’t have historical rights over the region. China has maintained an aggressive posture on the South China Sea since the tribunal’s verdict, which ruled it had violated the sovereign rights of the Philippines and caused harm to the coral reef environment. The tribunal handed the Philippines, which had petitioned the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague over the dispute with China, a victory. Satellites like Gaofen 3, according to Xu, will be “very useful in safeguarding the country's maritime rights and interests”.

Source: Hindustan Times August 11, 2016 11:26 UTC