Beixi pipeline exploded, but Chinese satellites obtained observation data at the first time. This not only means that our satellite is strong enough, but also dispels an important doubt in people before, that is, how to prevent China's energy pipeline from being attacked in the future?
China recently mobilized one of the most advanced earth observation satellites, Gaofen 5 02, to conduct remote sensing monitoring of the relevant sea areas where the accident occurred in the Nord Stream pipeline to find out how many methane were leaked into the atmosphere.
Chinese team said that without grasping the relevant details, high-score satellites can significantly reduce the observed area. With the help of Gaofen satellites, the Chinese team was the first to accurately measure the methane leakage in the Nord Stream pipeline, at 79 tons per hour. This data was later widely used by Western investigation teams.
We all know that it has been more than half a month since the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline, but now there are still many doubts. Most people think that the United States did it, and there are also a lot of evidence on the contrary, but there is only a lack of direct and incisive evidence.
Russia definitely wants to get these evidence, but EU refuses to allow Russia to participate in the investigation, which leads to Russia being passive now: it has neither done the prevention work in advance nor found evidence to accuse the United States. From the current point of view, even if there is evidence, it may have been destroyed.
Although China is a bystander, it is also worried: What if the energy pipeline between China and neighboring countries is also bombed one day in the future, what will we do then? What measures should be taken now to prevent this tragedy from happening?
This concern is reflected in China's statement on the explosion of the Nord River pipeline. Geng Shuang, deputy representative of China to United Nations , clearly pointed out that the Beixi leak incident highlights the vulnerability of cross-border infrastructure, and China is willing to work with all parties to maintain the security of cross-border infrastructure.
China's worries are by no means "indulgent worry". The Baltic Sea where the Nord Stream pipeline is located is the busiest sea area in the world. The NATO warship and satellite can be said to have been staring here for 24 hours, but an accident occurred in the Nord Stream pipeline.
In comparison, although China does not import natural gas from subsea pipelines, China has a huge and complex energy pipeline network with many land neighbors, playing an important role in national energy strategies such as the "West-East Gas Pipeline". Once the situation around China changes drastically in the future, these energy pipelines in China's rear may naturally be targeted by external forces with ulterior motives.
In fact, the United States has always liked to block the opponent's energy paths to achieve the effect of suppressing the opponent. During the period of World War II, the United States imposed a complete blockade of Japan's energy imports at sea, which dealt a heavy blow to Japan's war machines. Since the 21st century, the United States has repeatedly threatened that once there is a direct military confrontation with China in the future, it will send US troops to block the important maritime roads such as Malacca Strait to block China's energy imports.
But as time goes by, this vision of the United States began to gradually become untenable. On the one hand, the strength of the Chinese Navy is no longer the same as before, and the gap with the US Navy is shrinking, and the United States will become increasingly difficult to maintain its global maritime hegemony; on the other hand, China has continuously promoted the diversification of energy imports and gradually got rid of its excessive dependence on the Middle East energy, and a large amount of oil and gas from Russia and Central Asian countries have entered the Chinese market.
In 2019, the "Siberian Force 1" pipeline between China and Russia was officially completed and ventilated; and just recently, Russia stated that the "Siberian Force 2" pipeline, which has the maximum gas transmission volume close to "North Stream 1", is expected to start construction in 2024.
It can be said that it is almost impossible for the United States to threaten our country's energy security by just using maritime blockade. Under this situation, China's land energy pipeline seems to have become a relatively weak place.
How will China deal with this situation? Obviously, we have given one of the answers, that is, satellite surveillance .Although the high-score satellite detected the leakage of the Nord Stream pipeline, to some extent, it also reflects the current high accuracy and extremely fast response speed of Chinese satellites. China's energy pipelines are so long that although there are manual monitoring every day, it is probably difficult to avoid leaking water. If satellite monitoring is assisted, China's energy pipelines will largely prevent accidents.
