Wei Wenliang, head of China's Antarctic program. Wei Wenliang, head of China's Antarctic program.

CHINA plans to extend its reach into Antarctica - by building a new ice-breaker ship, purchasing a plane and helicopters and upgrading its base into a year-round facility - in line with its rapidly expanding global profile.
The head of China's Antarctic program, Wei Wenliang, says the new Antarctic transport capability will enable Chinese scientists to live year-round at an expanded and upgraded ''Kunlun'' base, located at the centre of Antarctica on a 4000-metre high ice plateau.
Conditions there are exceptionally harsh, with the minimum temperature last month dropping to minus 78 degrees.
In a rare interview with foreign media, Mr Wei, the Communist Party chief of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, said the increase in exploration and scientific capability meant China was now ready to ''shoulder responsibility'' in administering the region.
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A new paper by Anne-Marie Brady, from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, details how China's scholarly papers and state-controlled media discuss Antarctica in terms that are ''virtually taboo'' in the West.
''Chinese language polar social science discussions are dominated by debates about resources and how China might gain its share,'' says the paper, China's Rise in Antarctica?, in the forthcoming Asian Survey journal.
However, Mr Wei said China's program does not include exploring for or exploiting the continent's untapped mineral wealth or making a territorial claim, although he ''understands the misunderstandings'' about China's intentions.
He said the camp on the Dome A ice plateau is the world's best location for astronomy and studying climate history.
Mr Wei also revealed his scientists have drilled hundreds of metres into what will be a 1000-metre-deep ice core sample - which will shed light on 1 million years of climate history and assist with projections of global warming - and they plan to drill further for rock samples below.
''If possible we would also like to extract rocks under the ice,'' he said. ''After drilling the ice core we will use the same hole, place a different head on the drill, and go deeper into the rock.''
China's Antarctic program plays strongly into patriotic propaganda at home, with journalists from state-run television, radio and newspapers accompanying most expeditions.
''China's polar activities are as much about national prestige as they are about the science,'' said Dr Brady, who added that China's role in exploration and governance was ''very positive''.
Mr Wei's agency is a division of China's State Oceanic Administration, which last week trumpeted the fact that one of its submersibles plunged 3750 metres to plant a Chinese flag on the seabed of the disputed South China Sea.
The Oceanic Administration, in turn, reports to the Ministry of Land and Resources. Mr Wei said that bureaucratic division did not imply anything about seeking land or resources in Antarctica.
Dr Tony Press, who led Australia's Antarctic program for a decade until 2008, said there was no evidence that China was interested in breaching prohibitions on exploring and exploiting minerals in Antarctica. In any case, he said exploiting mineral resources on the continent was not ''physically'' possible.
Dr Press said China's focus on the ice core was partly ''symbolic'' - at close to the highest point in Antarctica and drilling deeper than any other nation - but it could also be scientifically ''significant''.
''It has the potential to push down through more than 1 million years of climate history to a time when climate cycles were much shorter than today,'' said Dr Press, who now heads the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre at the University of Tasmania.
China's massive expansion in Antarctic exploration is in line with its rapidly expanding impact on global affairs.
Mr Wei said China had budgeted to spend 780 million yuan ($125.8 million) in the two ''five-year plans'' ending next year, before a sharp increase in the next five-year plan to be approved at a Communist Party meeting in October.
The new ice-breaker will have the capacity to carry 60 scientists and 8000 tonnes of equipment and break through ice as thick as 1.5 metres. Mr Wei said the ship will be delivered in 2013 or 2014 and will be closely followed by new aircraft, which he said could be used co-operatively with Australia.
Chinese and Australian scientists have co-operated since the early 1980s, when an Australian team hosted the first Chinese scientist to visit Antarctica. Both the weather station and the telescope at Kunlun station were provided by Australia.
''The Australians are good friends with both sides, we're the neutral party in all of this, we've helped out the Chinese and the Americans,'' said Dr Press.