China is aggressively engaged in mapping the Indian Ocean bed and collecting seismic and bathymetric data to facilitate submarine operations in India’s maritime backyard. And the Maldives, under its new Islamist-leaning, pro-China president, is becoming an enabler. After terminating the 2019 hydrographic surveying agreement with India and ordering the expulsion of several dozen non-combat Indian military personnel tasked with rescue and relief in that disaster-prone archipelago nation, Maldivian President Muizzu has agreed to host a Chinese spy ship whose mission is to collate data on undersea conditions. The Muizzu government claim that the PLA-linked ship would not conduct oceanographic research in the Maldivian waters is laughable as the Maldives has zero capability to detect such activity. Muizzu's latest provocation, by mocking the security concerns of the traditionally friendly India, is unlikely to escape scot-free.