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00:00This is the deepest place on Earth, nearly 11,000 meters down.
00:08No sunlight, crushing pressure, and we know almost nothing about it.
00:16But now, one country is racing to explore these depths, and not just for science.
00:22China is deploying fleets of deep-sea robots, building underwater bases, and quietly moving to claim what lies at the bottom before anyone else can.
00:37As the U.S. guts its ocean research programs, China is diving deeper, moving faster, and investing more aggressively than any nation in history.
00:49So what exactly is down there? And why is China so determined to get it first?
00:58To find out, we spent weeks digging through Chinese research, news reports, tracking vessels, and speaking with experts.
01:08What we found points to a much bigger story. And almost nobody is talking about it.
01:15Before we can grasp the full scale of what's happening, we need to pull back and understand where we are.
01:24This is the Mariana Trench, a massive underwater canyon in the western Pacific, just east of the Philippines.
01:35It is the deepest part of the ocean, and one of the most extreme and hard-to-reach places on Earth.
01:43To get to the bottom, you have to travel through the ocean's entire water column.
01:50Let's dive down.
01:51We start at the surface, the photic zone, also called the epipelagic zone.
01:59Here, it's warm and bright, filled with coral reefs, schools of fish, and everything you think of when you picture the ocean.
02:10This is the part we swim, surf, and snorkel in.
02:13But this familiar layer only goes down about 200 meters.
02:19Go deeper, and things change.
02:23This here is the twilight zone, or the mesopelagic zone, stretching from 200 to 1,000 meters below the surface.
02:33Sunlight slowly fades to near darkness.
02:36As you descend, the pressure builds up to 10 times what we feel at sea level, enough to crush most surface-dwelling creatures.
02:46This zone is home to bizarre creatures like the oarfish, a silvery, serpent-like giant that can grow longer than a bus.
02:59And this here is the sea angel, a transparent, winged slug that flutters through the dark.
03:06As sunlight disappears and pressure rises, animals here adapt in strange ways.
03:14Losing color, growing oversized eyes, or evolving soft, flexible bodies that won't collapse under pressure.
03:24The deeper you go, the stranger it gets.
03:28At 1,000 meters, you enter the midnight zone.
03:33Total darkness.
03:34The only light is what the creatures make themselves, a natural glow known as bioluminescence.
03:43Animals here look like something from a sci-fi movie, with glowing lures, transparent bodies, and giant mouths.
03:53This horrific creature here, for example, is the magnapenna squid.
03:58It has long, spidery arms that can reach over 6 meters and seem to dangle like puppet strings in the dark.
04:07Nightmare fuel.
04:09Nightmare fuel.
04:11Down here, pressure builds to 100 times what we feel at sea level.
04:17About 1,500 pounds on every square inch of your body.
04:21That's like a full-grown elephant pressing down on your fingertip,
04:26in that same force surrounding you from every direction.
04:30One of the most well-known creatures from this zone is the blobfish.
04:36In its natural habitat at the upper end of the midnight zone,
04:41it looks like a normal deep-sea fish, adapted perfectly to the intense pressure.
04:47But when it's brought to the surface, all that pressure disappears,
04:50and the blobfish expands into the gelatinous shape you might have seen online.
04:58The blobfish is a perfect reminder of just how extreme the pressure is down here,
05:03and how life can adapt to survive it.
05:06But you keep sinking,
05:08and at 4,000 meters,
05:11you reach what's called the abyssopelagic zone,
05:14or simply, the abyss.
05:16It's cold, dark, and quiet.
05:21Life is sparse, but not absent.
05:25And here's where the barren seafloor might surprise you.
05:29At first glance, it looks like plain, boring mud.
05:34But that mud is deceiving.
05:38Have you ever wondered what happens to everything in the ocean when it dies?
05:42The fish, the sharks,
05:46even the tiniest plankton.
05:50Eventually, everything that lives above sinks.
05:54Some of it falls as waste,
05:57some as tiny particles,
05:59digested and expelled by other creatures.
06:02Over time, it all builds up.
06:04Over millions of years,
06:08all this organic matter
06:10drifts down
06:11and settles onto the seafloor.
06:14A gentle snowfall known as marine snow.
06:19Layer by layer,
06:21it forms soft,
06:23carbon-rich mud.
06:25In some places,
06:26that mud is over a kilometer thick,
06:29more than 3,000 feet,
06:31made from the remains of everything that once lived above.
06:36And while these layers preserve the ocean's history,
06:40they also trap carbon,
06:42turning the deep sea
06:44into one of the planet's most powerful natural carbon sinks.
06:49But even with all that marine snow piling up,
06:53life down here is scarce.
06:56Most creatures survive on scraps,
06:58adapted to a world where real food is hard to come by.
07:03But every so often,
07:05something incredible happens.
07:08Something massive sinks.
07:11And when it does,
07:13it changes everything.
07:16This here is what scientists call a whale fall.
07:20Whale fall.
07:22Whale fall.
07:22Whale fall.
07:23Oh, whale fall.
07:24Here we go, baby.
07:26Okay, give it a kiss.
07:27When a dead whale falls to the seafloor,
07:31it becomes a magnet for life.
07:35And here, you can see it.
07:37Deep-sea scavengers moving in within hours.
07:41First, sharks and hagfish.
07:44Then worms, snails, and bacteria.
07:48Over time,
07:49a whole ecosystem forms around the remains,
07:53surviving on a single fallen body.
07:55See these tiny hair-like things stuck to the bones?
08:01These are worms.
08:04One whale can support life here for years.
08:08A burst of energy in a place where opportunities are rare.
08:12And when it comes,
08:14life doesn't waste a moment.
08:15And yet, surviving here still isn't easy.
08:21The temperature is just above freezing,
08:24and the pressure is crushing,
08:26more than 400 times what we feel at the surface.
08:31That's like balancing seven full-grown elephants on your fingertip,
08:36and feeling that weight pressing in from all sides.
08:39You're descending further.
08:43You're now deeper than 6,000 meters below the surface.
08:48This is the Hadal Zone,
08:50named after the Greek god Hades,
08:53ruler of the underworld.
08:56It's trench territory.
08:58From here on out,
08:59the only places that go deeper
09:01are ocean trenches.
09:03Very few submarines can even reach this far down.
09:08The pressure in these depths
09:09is more than 600 times what we feel at the surface.
09:14To survive it,
09:16a sub needs a near-perfect,
09:18pressure-proof design,
09:20something only a handful of submersibles on Earth
09:22have ever achieved.
09:23And finally,
09:26at nearly 11,000 meters,
09:29we hit the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
09:32That's deeper than Mount Everest is tall.
09:36And the pressure is so intense
09:38that it would feel like 90 full-grown elephants
09:41pressing into every fingertip-sized area of your body,
09:46from all sides.
09:49But here's the incredible part.
09:51Life still exists.
09:54Some of it in strange forms,
09:56like giant, single-celled organisms
09:59called xenophilophores
10:01that filter food from the seafloor.
10:04They thrive under pressure
10:06that would crush most life.
10:09Tiny, pale shrimp
10:11creep silently across the mud.
10:14Life here is rare,
10:16but it's perfectly adapted to the extreme.
10:20So what else could be in these trenches?
10:22We know life survives,
10:25but there's still so much more we haven't seen.
10:30Let's stay at the bottom of the Mariana Trench for a moment.
10:33This underwater canyon stretches more than 2,500 kilometers across the Pacific,
10:40about the distance from New York to Denver.
10:43But not every part of it is the same depth.
10:48Because near the western end,
10:50there's a point that plunges even deeper.
10:54A pit within the trench.
10:56If the Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean,
11:00then what's the deepest part of the trench?
11:05That's where we find Challenger Deep,
11:09the most extreme depth on Earth's seafloor.
11:13It doesn't go any deeper than this.
11:16It was first reached in 1960.
11:23A Swiss engineer, Jacques Piccard,
11:26and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh
11:29made the descent in a steel sphere
11:31attached to a massive float.
11:34That first dive lasted just 20 minutes.
11:38Then, over 50 years,
11:40no one followed
11:41until filmmaker James Cameron dove solo in 2012.
11:47He captured footage,
11:49gathered samples,
11:50and made it back safely.
11:52A few years later,
11:55explorer and multi-millionaire Victor Vescova
11:58built a high-tech sub
12:00called the Limiting Factor.
12:02He made multiple dives,
12:05collecting detailed data from the bottom.
12:08But each of these missions had something in common.
12:11They were rare,
12:13expensive,
12:14and mostly one-offs.
12:17That is,
12:18until China got involved.
12:22What comes next might be surprising.
12:25Because China's deep-sea activity
12:27isn't just about science.
12:29It opens up a much deeper story,
12:31one that doesn't show up in headlines.
12:34To tell it properly,
12:35our team dug into research papers,
12:38satellite data,
12:39and government reports.
12:40Some of them,
12:42not always easy to access securely.
12:45And that's where Surfshark VPN came in.
12:48It encrypts our connection,
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12:56ensuring a safe and private browsing experience.
13:00Surfshark also allows us to access content
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13:03which is extremely useful
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13:08It runs seamlessly across all our devices,
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13:14and without leaving any digital traces.
13:17Scan the QR code on screen
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13:27A big thanks to Surfshark
13:29for supporting our work.
13:31Now,
13:32let's look at how China
13:33went from one deep-sea dive
13:35to something far more ambitious.
13:37In 2020,
13:41China sent a team of three to the bottom
13:43in a sub called Fenduze.
13:46It was their deepest dive ever.
13:51But here's what made their effort different.
13:54They didn't stop.
13:57They doubled down.
13:59Each new sub was smaller,
14:01more advanced,
14:02and designed to return again and again.
14:05By 2024,
14:08China had moved beyond crude missions.
14:12And this is what it looked like.
14:14A robot no bigger than a shoebox
14:17dropped into one of the most
14:19hostile environments on Earth.
14:21No pilot,
14:23no cable.
14:25It crawled across the sea floor
14:27under its own power
14:28and came back intact.
14:31That moment marked a shift
14:33from rare missions
14:35to something repeatable,
14:37scalable,
14:38and far more ambitious.
14:41Because if one tiny robot
14:42can do what used to take
14:44a massive sub,
14:46what happens when you build
14:47a fleet of them?
14:49By the way,
14:50if you're into this kind of
14:52deep, untold science,
14:54consider subscribing.
14:55We go where the headlines don't.
15:00Fender's A wasn't the end.
15:02It was the start
15:03of something bigger.
15:06China is developing
15:07a new generation
15:08of deep-sea robots.
15:11Small,
15:12autonomous machines
15:13that glide,
15:14crawl,
15:15or flex their way
15:16through the deep.
15:18Built for different tasks,
15:20they work together in fleets,
15:22covering more ground,
15:24more often,
15:25and at a fraction
15:26of the cost
15:27of crude subs.
15:29So what
15:31are they hoping to find?
15:35The deep sea
15:36holds more than
15:37strange creatures
15:38and extreme pressures.
15:40This here
15:41is a cold sea,
15:43a place where
15:44methane and hydrogen sulfide
15:46seep up
15:46from beneath the sea floor.
15:49It may not look like much,
15:51but these gases feed
15:52entire ecosystems,
15:55mussels,
15:56clams,
15:57and tube worms
15:57that survive
15:59without sunlight,
16:00living off chemical energy
16:02instead.
16:03Why does this
16:04matter to China?
16:06Because cold seeps
16:08are more than
16:09strange deep-sea oases.
16:11They're natural
16:12test beds.
16:14They show how life
16:15thrives in extreme conditions.
16:17They offer models
16:19for future energy systems.
16:22And they resemble
16:23environments
16:24scientists believe
16:25exist on some
16:26of the moons
16:27of Jupiter
16:27and Saturn.
16:30To a country
16:32racing to control
16:33the deep
16:33and reach beyond Earth,
16:36places like this
16:37are priceless.
16:38Now look at this.
16:42What looks like
16:43frozen snow
16:44packed into the seabed
16:46is actually something
16:47far more unusual.
16:50Methane hydrate
16:51or fire ice.
16:54It forms
16:55when methane gas
16:56gets trapped
16:57inside a cage of ice
16:58under high pressure
17:00and cold temperatures.
17:02And yes,
17:03if you light it,
17:04it burns.
17:05scientists are studying
17:08it as a potential
17:09fuel source.
17:11But extracting it
17:12is risky.
17:14Disturb the seafloor
17:16too much
17:16and you could trigger
17:17underwater landslides
17:19or release
17:20large amounts
17:21of methane,
17:22a powerful greenhouse gas,
17:24into the ocean
17:25and atmosphere.
17:27The fact that we're
17:28even seeing this here
17:30at these depths
17:31shows just how far
17:33deep-sea exploration
17:34has come.
17:35And it raises
17:37the next question.
17:39What other resources
17:40might be buried
17:41down here?
17:43See these round,
17:45lumpy rocks
17:45scattered across
17:46the seabed?
17:48You're looking at
17:49polymetallic nodules,
17:51small potato-sized rocks
17:53resting on the ocean floor.
17:56Inside,
17:57they contain
17:57valuable metals
17:58like cobalt,
18:00nickel,
18:01copper,
18:02and manganese.
18:04These metals are
18:04essential for building
18:05batteries,
18:06electric vehicles,
18:08and renewable energy
18:09systems.
18:10And this
18:11is how they're
18:12collected.
18:13A surface ship
18:15lowers a robotic
18:16mining vehicle
18:17down to the seafloor.
18:19That vehicle
18:20crawls along the bottom,
18:22scooping up the top
18:23layer of sediment
18:24along with the nodules.
18:26Everything it collects
18:27is pumped back up
18:29through a pipe
18:30to the ship.
18:32As collector vehicles
18:33crawl across the seabed,
18:35they kick up
18:36massive clouds of sediment
18:38known as plumes.
18:40These clouds can
18:41smother fragile habitats
18:43and drift for miles.
18:46After the nodules
18:47are processed,
18:48a second plume of waste
18:50is pumped back
18:51into the ocean,
18:52adding to the chaos.
18:53If this ramps up
18:56before we understand
18:58the long-term impact,
18:59the damage
19:00could be irreversible.
19:03Some scientists
19:03warn the seafloor
19:05could take centuries
19:06to recover,
19:07if it recovers at all.
19:09And with no clear
19:11consensus on how
19:12to manage the waste
19:13or where to put it,
19:15one thing is clear.
19:17We're charging
19:18into the deep
19:19without a full picture
19:20of the cost.
19:22Many marine biologists
19:24are deeply concerned
19:25about deep-sea mining
19:27as a whole.
19:28Those ecosystems
19:29are slow to recover
19:31and incredibly fragile.
19:33Disrupting them
19:34could wipe out species
19:36we haven't even
19:37discovered yet
19:38and destroy habitats
19:39that took millions
19:40of years to form.
19:43All of this,
19:44the nodules,
19:46the seeps,
19:46and the tools
19:47to reach them,
19:48makes one thing clear.
19:51The extreme deep sea
19:52is no longer
19:53out of reach.
19:55It's rich in resources
19:56and it's becoming
19:58more accessible
19:59by the day.
20:03But if the deep sea
20:04becomes the next
20:05resource frontier,
20:07who decides
20:08how it's used
20:09or protected?
20:11Right now,
20:12regulations are sparse
20:14and ambition
20:15is outpacing oversight.
20:18China sees that opening.
20:21They're not just
20:22observing or experimenting.
20:24They're getting ready
20:25to extract,
20:27to claim,
20:28to secure what's down here
20:30before anyone else does.
20:32They're investing
20:33in long-term presence.
20:36Right now,
20:37they're planning
20:38to build a permanent base
20:392,000 meters underwater,
20:42designed for six scientists
20:44to live and work
20:45for up to 30 days
20:46at a time.
20:48It's like a space station,
20:50but on the ocean floor.
20:52And it gives China
20:53something even more valuable
20:55than minerals.
20:57Time.
20:59Time to test new tools.
21:02Time to monitor
21:03the environment.
21:05Time to gain
21:06the kind of experience
21:07that few others
21:08are even attempting.
21:09down here,
21:12access is just
21:13the beginning.
21:14What really matters
21:15is what you do with it.
21:18China is building
21:19the tools,
21:20the knowledge,
21:21and the experience
21:22needed to operate
21:23in the deep.
21:24Not just once,
21:26but continuously.
21:28That's how they're
21:28pulling ahead,
21:30by turning exploration
21:31into repetition,
21:33and repetition
21:34into dominance.
21:37The deeper you go,
21:39the less room there is
21:40for guesswork.
21:42And the countries
21:43that are investing now
21:44in hardware,
21:45in research,
21:46in people,
21:47are setting themselves up
21:49to control
21:50what lies beneath.
21:52And there's
21:53one more thing
21:54that lies hidden
21:55on the seabed,
21:57out of sight,
21:58yet crucial
21:59to the way
21:59our world works.
22:04It's not rocks
22:05and resources,
22:06and I'm not talking
22:07about the creatures.
22:10This is a cross-section
22:11of a deep-sea data cable.
22:14It might look like
22:15plastic and metal,
22:17but inside are
22:18hair-thin glass fibers
22:20that carry most
22:21of the world's
22:22internet traffic.
22:23Messages,
22:24emails,
22:25even this video.
22:27They travel through
22:28these fragile lines
22:29stretched across
22:31the ocean floor.
22:32These are thick cables,
22:34but they are surprisingly
22:35easy to damage.
22:38One ship dragging
22:39its anchor
22:40can knock a cable out.
22:42In recent years,
22:44Russian ships
22:44have been spotted
22:45operating near
22:47undersea cable routes
22:48in the North Sea,
22:50raising concerns
22:51about sabotage
22:52and tampering.
22:53So,
22:54imagine what could happen
22:56if someone wanted
22:57to cut these cables
22:58on purpose.
23:00In early 2025,
23:03China revealed
23:04another deep-sea robot,
23:07a literal cable cutter.
23:09Officially,
23:10it's meant to repair
23:11damaged infrastructure.
23:14But a device like this
23:15could also be used
23:17to quietly disable cables,
23:19thousands of meters
23:20below the surface,
23:22out of sight
23:23and out of reach,
23:25without anyone noticing.
23:26There's no proof
23:28it's ever been used
23:29that way,
23:30but the possibility alone
23:32is enough to shift
23:33how nations think
23:34about the deep sea.
23:37Beneath the ocean floor
23:39runs the nervous system
23:41of the modern world.
23:43Cables,
23:44sensors,
23:44and critical infrastructure
23:45stretch across the seabed,
23:48carrying our internet,
23:50global trade,
23:51in military communications.
23:54They're not
23:54science experiments.
23:57They're the modern world's
23:58lifelines.
24:00And they are vulnerable.
24:03Control is already
24:04shifting underwater.
24:07The only question now is,
24:09who's getting there
24:10fast enough
24:11to shape
24:11what happens next?
24:13Every deep sea robot
24:17starts with a human idea.
24:20Someone imagining,
24:21designing,
24:22and building something
24:24to survive
24:24where people can't.
24:26And right now,
24:27the country supporting
24:28those people the most
24:29is China.
24:31They're pouring
24:33serious resources
24:34into ocean science,
24:36building new research labs,
24:39funding full-scale programs,
24:41training the next generation
24:43of ocean engineers,
24:45biologists,
24:46and roboticists.
24:47And they're not just
24:49investing in their own talent.
24:51They're attracting top minds
24:53from around the world.
24:55Meanwhile,
24:56countries like the U.S.
24:57are pulling back.
24:59Science budgets
25:00are getting cut.
25:02The current administration
25:04has slashed funding
25:05for NOAA,
25:06the very agency
25:07responsible for exploring,
25:09protecting,
25:10and understanding
25:11U.S. ocean territory.
25:14While China
25:15is flooding its labs
25:16with money,
25:17talent,
25:18and momentum,
25:19the U.S.
25:20is sidelining
25:20the only agency
25:22built to compete.
25:24Top scientists
25:25are walking away,
25:26not because they've
25:27lost interest,
25:28but because the funding
25:30is gone.
25:31When funding dries up,
25:33research stops.
25:36But when a country
25:37puts real support
25:38behind its scientists,
25:40discoveries happen.
25:42And those discoveries,
25:44they shape the future.
25:48So what did China
25:49actually discover?
25:52Not just life
25:53at the bottom of the ocean,
25:55but a way in,
25:57and a reason to stay.
26:00They're transforming
26:01deep-sea exploration
26:03from rare missions
26:04into scalable strategy.
26:07With compact,
26:08autonomous robots
26:09and underwater research stations,
26:11they're building
26:12the infrastructure
26:13to operate
26:14where few others can.
26:17They've uncovered resources
26:19that could power
26:20the next century.
26:22But more importantly,
26:23they're developing
26:24the tools and experience
26:26to control access.
26:27they're not just
26:30exploring.
26:31They're positioning
26:32themselves to dictate
26:34what happens next.
26:36While the U.S.
26:37cuts research budgets
26:39and pulls back
26:40from ocean science
26:41leadership,
26:42China is surging ahead,
26:44faster,
26:46deeper,
26:46and with a long-term plan.
26:48Beneath the waves,
26:51a new frontier
26:52is taking shape,
26:54one that could define
26:55the century ahead.
26:57And what we choose
26:58to explore
26:59and how we choose
27:00to do it
27:01will shape
27:02more than just
27:03our oceans.
27:05It will shape
27:06power,
27:07security,
27:08and global influence.
27:11The deep sea
27:12is one of Earth's
27:13last wild
27:14and untouched places.
27:17Once it's disturbed,
27:18there's no going back.
27:20Rushing in
27:21without oversight
27:22could wipe out
27:23entire ecosystems
27:24and trigger consequences
27:26we don't yet understand.
27:29We've been here before.
27:32When the race
27:32was to the moon,
27:34competition gave way
27:35to collaboration.
27:37The International Space Station
27:39proved that nations
27:40can work together
27:41to push boundaries
27:43and protect
27:44what matters.
27:46We need that mindset again.
27:48not just
27:49to explore the deep,
27:51but to protect it.
27:53Because if only
27:54one nation
27:55controls
27:56the last unexplored
27:57part of our planet,
27:59the cost
27:59won't just be scientific.
28:02It could be something
28:03we all feel.
28:06And China
28:06isn't stopping
28:07with Earth's depths.
28:09They're also exploring
28:11these massive holes
28:12on the moon,
28:14strange openings
28:15that might lead
28:15to vast underground tunnels.
28:19What will they find up there?
28:22Find out in this video.
28:24What will they find out in this video?
28:25What will they find out in this video?
28:26What will they find out in this video?
28:27What will they find out in this video?
28:28What will they find out in this video?
28:29What will they find out in this video?
28:30What will they find out in this video?
28:31What will they find out in this video?
28:32What will they find out in this video?
28:33What will they find out in this video?
28:34What will they find out in this video?
28:35What will they find out in this video?
28:36What will they find out in this video?
28:37What will they find out in this video?
28:38What will they find out in this video?
28:39What will they find out in this video?
28:40What will they find out in this video?
28:41What will they find out in this video?
28:42What will they find out in this video?
28:43You
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