The state-owned Global Times quoted China's official news agency Xinhua as reporting on January 4, 2018 that China's underwater glider Haiyi, which means "sea wings" in Chinese, successfully ended its mission to the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. It said it had successfully completed a scientific observation in the Indian Ocean, marking the first time that the country's indigenous underwater glider was used in this ocean. Yu Jiancheng, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) Shenyang Institute of Automation and the glider's developer, said the mission was conducted between December 11, 2017 and January 2, 2018 and the Haiyi obtained 190 pieces of data on its 705-kilometer journey. Before its Indian Ocean mission, the glider also accomplished a three-month mission in the South China Sea in October 2017, when it reached a record distance of over 1,880 kilometers while collecting data for scientific research. Chen Xiangmiao, a research fellow at the National Institute for the South China Sea, told the Global Times on January 4, that "Such explorations are open and transparent as they are for scientific purposes and not for military use. They should not be politicized or hyped by India and countries surrounding the South China Sea."
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