Three Gorges Dam
EnergyThe world's largest hydropower station by installed capacity, at 22.5 GW, and the main flood-control structure on the Yangtze.
Yichang, Hubei
In February 2007, the Iles Eparses became an integral part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). The Southern Lands are now divided into five administrative districts, two of which are archipelagos, Iles Crozet and Iles Kerguelen; the third is a district composed of two volcanic islands, Ile Saint-Paul and Ile Amsterdam; the fourth, Iles Eparses, consists of five scattered tropical islands around Madagascar. They contain no permanent inhabitants and are visited only by researchers studying the native fauna, scientists at the various scientific stations, fishermen, and military personnel. …
The National Infrastructure Index maps the physical assets national life runs on — power stations and grids, water systems, ports, railways and airports, data networks, payment systems and launch sites. Each asset is placed in a Strategic Infrastructure capability group, so it can be read against the ratings in the National Capability index above.
Assets are chosen for how much of the economy and state depends on them and how hard they would be to replace. Each card records what the asset is, the category it belongs to, what it does and where it is.
Example assets. These twenty cards are modelled on China's most critical infrastructure and show on every nation page until each nation's own assets are mapped.
The world's largest hydropower station by installed capacity, at 22.5 GW, and the main flood-control structure on the Yangtze.
A 16 GW dam on the Jinsha River, built around sixteen 1 GW turbines, the largest single units in service.
A ±1,100 kV direct-current line carrying 12 GW more than 3,000 km from Xinjiang's power bases to the eastern grid.
China's first large commercial nuclear plant, in service since 1994, with much of its output sold to Hong Kong.
A canal carrying Yangtze basin water more than 1,400 km north from the Danjiangkou Reservoir to Beijing and Tianjin.
The 1,318 km trunk line between the two largest cities, opened in 2011 and one of the busiest high-speed routes in the world.
The world's busiest container port since 2010, including the automated Yangshan deep-water terminals.
The world's largest port by cargo tonnage, handling iron ore, crude oil and coal for the eastern industrial belt.
The capital's second international hub, opened in 2019 around one of the largest single terminal buildings in the world.
A 55 km bridge and undersea tunnel system linking the western and eastern shores of the Pearl River Delta, opened in 2018.
The 1,956 km line from Xining to Lhasa, crossing the Tanggula Pass at 5,072 m, the highest railway in the world.
One of eight national data centre hubs under the East Data, West Computing programme, hosting major cloud providers.
A 2,000 km quantum key distribution trunk line through Jinan and Hefei, completed in 2017 for secure government and bank links.
CIPS clears and settles cross-border payments in renminbi, launched in 2015 to extend the currency's international reach.
The coastal launch site for Long March 5 heavy-lift rockets, used for the Tiangong station modules and lunar and Mars missions.
China's first launch site, founded in 1958 in the Gobi Desert, and the base for every crewed Shenzhou mission.
The national satellite navigation system, providing global positioning and timing since 2020 from its Beijing control segment.
The world's largest known rare-earth deposit and the core of China's rare-earth mining and refining supply chain.
A weir and channel system built around 256 BC that still irrigates much of the Chengdu Plain's farmland.
China's leading maker of 3D NAND flash memory, central to the drive for a domestic semiconductor supply.
The National Development Index tracks the events that move a nation's capability — policy decisions, technological milestones, economic turns and external shocks — and places each one on the record with the date it happened and what followed from it. It is the narrative counterpart to the indices: where a rating says where the French Southern and Antarctic Lands stands, the index says how it arrived there.
Recent developments cover the current cycle, close enough that their consequences are still unfolding. Historical developments are the inflection points behind the present position — the decisions and events a reader needs in order to read the ratings above in context.
The first of the islands of the future territory to be recorded by Europeans was Amsterdam Island, sighted by the Spanish on 18 March 1522. The Dutch subsequently claimed and named it, beginning the long sequence of competing European claims in the southern Indian Ocean.
Saint Paul Island was recorded by the Portuguese in 1559. It later formed part of the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands district of the French territory.
France discovered Tromelin Island in 1722, establishing the basis of its claim to the island. Mauritius contests French sovereignty on the grounds that the island was not ceded under the Treaty of Paris.
The French explorer Marion du Fresne reached the Crozet Islands on 24 January 1772. The discovery gave France an early foothold in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that underpinned its later territorial claims.
The Treaty of Paris of 1814 governed the transfer of Indian Ocean possessions but, according to Mauritius, did not include Tromelin Island. The omission remains the legal core of the Mauritian sovereignty claim.
Adélie Land, a thin slice of the Antarctic continent and the last part of the territory to be found, was discovered and claimed for France in 1840 by an expedition led by the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who named it after his wife. Covering about 432,000 square kilometres, it forms the fifth district of the territory and later hosted a research station bearing d'Urville's name, anchoring the French claim in Antarctica.
In 1946 the French Comoros, previously linked to the Colony of Mayotte and dependencies, became a colony administered separately from Madagascar. This administrative history, which included the Glorioso Islands, is used to rebut later Malagasy sovereignty claims.
A French law of 6 August 1955 detached the islands from Madagascar, then a French colony, and constituted them as a territoire d'outre-mer administered directly by France. This created the French Southern and Antarctic Lands as a distinct administrative entity.
From 1972 Madagascar asserted sovereignty over Bassas da India, Europa Island and Juan de Nova Island, all administered by France as Scattered Islands. The claim came well after Malagasy independence and has never been recognised by France.
A United Nations resolution of 1979, lacking binding force, called for France to cede Bassas da India, Europa Island and Juan de Nova Island to Madagascar. It gave international visibility to the Malagasy claim without altering French administration.
In 1997 the islands, totalling 7,781 square kilometres, supported roughly 100 researchers, with numbers fluctuating between the July winter and January summer. The territory has never had a permanently settled population.
On 26 June 2025 France released the names of the negotiators due to attend the 30 June 2025 bilateral meeting with Madagascar. The second commission was to discuss the possible restitution of the Scattered Islands.
On 24 June 2025 the civic platform known as Sera declared that Madagascar's claim to the Scattered Islands would not be abandoned. The statement demonstrated domestic pressure on Malagasy negotiators.
On 20 June 2025 the Malagasy foreign minister chaired a meeting of the scientific committee devoted to Madagascar's claim to the Scattered Islands. It prepared the technical ground for bilateral talks with France.
In April 2025 the two governments said they would meet in June 2025 to find a peaceful solution to the Scattered Islands dispute. The announcement signalled renewed diplomatic engagement after the Chagos precedent.
The October 2024 agreement transferring the Chagos Islands, home to the American base of Diego Garcia, from Britain to Mauritius reverberated across the Indian Ocean. It relaunched debate in Madagascar over the restitution of the French-held Scattered Islands.
A bilateral negotiation session between France and Madagascar took place in November 2020 over the disputed Scattered Islands. It marked a formal channel for a claim that had been pressed since 1972.
On 5 July 2019 the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands and the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The listing recognised their pristine wilderness, biodiversity and vast bird colonies, raising the territory's international standing.
Law 2007-224 of 21 February 2007 constituted the Scattered Islands (Iles Eparses) in the Indian Ocean, the tropical islands scattered around Madagascar, as the fifth district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, consolidating French administration of territories also claimed by Madagascar, Mauritius and the Comoros. The TAAF is thereby divided into five administrative districts: the archipelagos of Iles Crozet and Iles Kerguelen, the volcanic islands of Ile Saint-Paul and Ile Amsterdam, the Iles Eparses, and Adelie Land. The territories have no permanent inhabitants and are visited only by researchers studying the native fauna, scientists at the various stations, fishermen and military personnel.
From December 2004 the territory ceased to be administered from Paris by an administrateur supérieur and was placed under a préfet with headquarters at Saint Pierre on Réunion Island. The change moved administrative capacity closer to the territory itself.
As of 1999 the territory's merchant marine register totalled 2,892,911 GRT and 5,165,713 tonnes deadweight. Despite 1,232 km of coastline with no ports or harbours, the flag register represented a significant economic function.
In February 2007, the Iles Eparses became an integral part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). The Southern Lands are now divided into five administrative districts, two of which are archipelagos, Iles Crozet and Iles Kerguelen; the third is a district composed of two volcanic islands, Ile Saint-Paul and Ile Amsterdam; the fourth, Iles Eparses, consists of five scattered tropical islands around Madagascar. They contain no permanent inhabitants and are visited only by researchers studying the native fauna, scientists at the various scientific stations, fishermen, and military personnel. The fifth district is the Antarctic portion, which consists of "Adelie Land," a thin slice of the Antarctic continent discovered and claimed by the French in 1840.
southeast and east of Africa, islands in the southern Indian Ocean, some near Madagascar and others about equidistant between Africa, Antarctica, and Australia; note - French Southern and Antarctic Lands include Ile Amsterdam, Ile Saint-Paul, Iles Crozet, Iles Kerguelen, Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, and Tromelin Island in the southern Indian Ocean, along with the French-claimed sector of Antarctica, "Adelie Land"; the US does not recognize the French claim to "Adelie Land"
Antarctic Region
0 km
fish, crayfish
Ile Amsterdam (Ile Amsterdam et Ile Saint-Paul) - 100% trees, grasses, ferns, and moss; Ile Saint-Paul (Ile Amsterdam et Ile Saint-Paul) - 100% grass, ferns, and moss; Iles Crozet - 100% tossock grass, heath, and fern; Iles Kerguelen - 100% tossock grass and Kerguelen cabbage; Bassas da India (Iles Eparses) - 100% rock, coral reef, and sand; Europa Island (Iles Eparses) - 100% mangrove swamp and dry woodlands; Glorioso Islands (Iles Eparses) - 100% lush vegetation and coconut palms; Juan de Nova Island (Iles Eparses) - 90% forest, 10% other; Tromelin Island (Iles Eparses) - 100% grasses and scattered brush (2011)
0 sq km (2011)
Ile Amsterdam and Ile Saint-Paul are inactive volcanoes; Iles Eparses subject to periodic cyclones; Bassas da India is a maritime hazard since it is under water for a period of three hours prior to and following the high tide and surrounded by reefs
islands component is widely scattered across remote locations in the southern Indian Ocean
introduction of foreign species on Iles Crozet has caused severe damage to the original ecosystem; overfishing of Patagonian toothfish around Iles Crozet and Iles Kerguelen
Capability-group ratings for Critical Technology are part of the GINC National Capability Framework rather than the country factbook. They are published in the National Capability index, and the per-capability detail lives on the capability pages.
4; note - one each on Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, and Tromelin Island in the Iles Eparses district (2013)
.tf
53 (2012)
has one or more meteorological stations on each possession
none; offshore anchorage only
defense is the responsibility of France
no indigenous inhabitants
French claim to "Adelie Land" in Antarctica is not recognized by the US
none (overseas territory of France); there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there are five administrative districts named Iles Crozet, Iles Eparses, Iles Kerguelen, Ile Saint-Paul et Ile Amsterdam; the fifth district is the "Adelie Land" claim in Antarctica that is not recognized by the US
the laws of France, where applicable, apply
overseas territory of France since 1955
the flag of France is used
sea lion
UPU
none (overseas territory of France)
none (overseas territory of France)
Economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations, military bases, and French and other fishing fleets. The fish catches landed on Iles Kerguelen by foreign ships are exported to France and Reunion.