Beijing could be planning to set up a space tracking station in Vanuatu, Chinese military experts said on Tuesday, despite denials from both sides that a permanent military base in the South Pacific island state was in the offing.

A space tracking or satellite telemetry station would not exclude the possibility of building other facilities there although the project would require Vanuatu’s agreement, Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said.

“It’s possible to build a surveillance facility, and is certainly within Beijing’s financial and technical means to do so. The only hurdles are political,” he said.

“If the facility has a dual use, both civilian and military, then the picture becomes murky. This will often allow a project to slip through strict scrutiny.”

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