[3][4][5] The Yaogan program is the successor to the Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW) recoverable reconnaissance satellite program but, unlike its predecessor, includes a variety of classes utilizing various means of remote sensing such as optical reconnaissance, synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), and electronic intelligence (ELINT) for maritime surveillance.

By 1994, CAS had introduced its first operational, real-time airborne SAR system to monitor flooding and transmit collected data to ground stations.

High-resolution, space-based SAR collection has been ambitiously pursued by the PLA for its potential contributions to all-weather targeting of naval forces in the Taiwan Strait.

The development and production of the Jianbing-5 series of satellites have been entirely funded by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as the ability to penetrate the seemingly constant cloud cover present in the southern provinces of Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guandgong, and Hainan challenges traditional optical collection in those regions.

[8] The PLA also believes that in a potential war SAR collection capabilities will be vital to information dominance by mapping terrain, identifying targets through cloud cover, rain, fog, and dust, and potentially monitoring enemy submarines in shallow waters or targets in subterranean facilities.

[7] The CAS Institute of Electronics built the SAR instruments onboard Jianbing-5 satellites, the craft itself designed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) which also develops the Long March 4B launch vehicle.

[9] JB-5 satellites have been confirmed to have an electronic motor-powered solar panel which can be expanded and contracted by the ground control station.

[10][12] The third satellite of the Jianbing-7 class, launched in October 2013, had its orbit lowered from April to July 2020 and consequently underwent an uncontrolled decay reentering the atmosphere in 2021.

[22] In response to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's visit to the United States in 1995, the PRC initiated the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis conducting high-profile missile tests, amphibious landing drills, and troop staging in Fujian Province, across the strait from the island of Taiwan.

[24][25][26][27] Since then, the PLA has committed to design and field advanced anti-ship missile systems including the Dong Feng 21 and has deployed nearly sixty maritime surveillance satellites using electronic intelligence (ELINT) to locate, identify, and track adversarial vessels to support targeting.

These satellites reportedly perform an ocean or naval surveillance mission similar to those of the United States' Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS or PARCAE) despite the Chinese state-media's insistence they were designed to "conduct electromagnetic environmental monitoring and related technology tests".