This Day, That Year: Dec 12

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

In December 1985, China's first underwater robot, HR-01 (Seaman-01) completed its maiden voyage.

Built by the Shenyang Institute of Automation in Liaoning province, the robot picked up designated objects from 200 meters below the sea's surface in 1990, as seen in this item from China Daily.

With the development of submarine technology in recent decades, the nation has witnessed its submarine industry booming and it has also emerged as a leader in terms of underwater exploration.

In June 2012, China's first deep-sea manned submersible, Jiaolong, set a world diving record for submersibles of its kind by plunging to 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. The feat made China the fifth country, after the United States, Russia, France and Japan, to have the ability to send humans deep into the ocean. This also meant the country is now capable of exploring more than 99.8 percent of the ocean floor.

The Ministry of Natural Resources said that next year Jiaolong will commence its first round-the-world voyage, which will last about a year, to survey and research the deep-sea environment and resources in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

During a 2017 expedition in the Indian and Pacific oceans, the submersible undertook 30 dives, collecting more than 600 kilograms of seabed examples, along with 2,115 marine creatures.

With attention focusing on construction of deep-sea scientific research programs, China is accelerating its efforts to explore and map the deep.

Chinese scientists are building a new manned submersible that can reach a depth of 11,000 meters, which will use domestically made components.