A Chinese Jackup Rig off South Korea Raises Suspicions of Expansionism

China's drills around Taiwan and its ambitions in the South China Sea get plenty of attention, but officials in South Korea warn that it is also encroaching on a contested space in the Yellow Sea - and may be attempting to move in with a durable presence.

According to South Korean officials, Chinese interests have moved an older jackup platform into an area known as the Provisional Measures Zone, a region where the two nations' exclusive economic zone claims overlap. The former rig is in use for aquaculture, according to China, but South Korea's government believes that there is more to the story. Chinese authorities intervened to stop a Korean research vessel from investigating the rig in February, raising security concerns in Seoul. Korean diplomats plan to raise the issue with China at an upcoming maritime dialogue, officials said.

"We are treating this issue with utmost seriousness from the standpoint of protecting our maritime territory," Korean minister of oceans and fisheries Kang Do-hyung told reporters on Monday.

The jackup platform has been identified as the Atlantic Amsterdam. It began life in 1984 as a drill rig, but in 2013 it was refitted for use as a floatel. In service with Northern Offshore - a subsidiary of state-owned Shandong Shipping Corporation - it has capacity for up to 70 people, plus a helipad and vertical gangway for access.

Atlantic Amsterdam was listed as available for commercial charter as recently as 2023, but according to Korean intelligence it has been emplaced in the Yellow Sea since early 2022.

Korean political commentators - particularly in the opposition People Power Party - have drawn comparisons between the rig and China's South China Sea bases. The vast land reclamation projects in the Spratly Islands and Paracels started under civilian descriptions, then evolved into strategic naval air stations within a few years' time.

"China’s method of installing the structure [Atlantic Amsterdam] is similar to its tactic of creating artificial islands in the South China Sea," People Power Party floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong told Korea Herald.