China’s newest nuclear-powered submarine sank in a shipyard near Wuhan earlier this year, according to U.S. officials, representing a setback in one of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) priority goals.Wuhan is home to two state-backed research institutes and is where China’s submarine research and development takes place.
Ziding Zhou, an independent analyst following the CCP’s military developments, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that the images showed the new model was just a few meters longer than China’s diesel-fueled Type 039A submarine.
Zhou said it looked like the CCP was experimenting with small-scale nuclear technology.
Zhou said the submarine did not look like a large-scale attack model but one more suitable for sea-to-sea combat in the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese authorities have not disclosed the incident.
Zhou said the revelation that U.S. defense officials were able to glean that it was a nuclear submarine also sent a major signal to the CCP that it hasn’t kept its weaponry advancements under wraps as well as it might have thought.
Loss of Sub ‘Raises Deeper Questions’
A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters it was unclear what caused the submarine to sink.
“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry—which has long been plagued by corruption,” the official said, using an acronym for the People’s Liberation Army.
“It’s not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal” the sinking, the official said.
A Pentagon spokesperson said it was also unclear whether the submarine had been carrying nuclear fuel at the time.
A series of satellite images from Planet Labs from June appear to show cranes at the Wuchang shipyard, where the submarine would have been docked.
China Test-Fired Nuclear-Capable Missile
This week, the CCP also test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the Pacific Ocean, its first such test since 1980.
The ICBM, a DF-41 capable of traveling an estimated 9,300 miles, landed near the French Polynesian islands. Experts told The Epoch Times this was meant to send a message both domestically—perhaps to distract from criticism of the regime’s handling of the economy—and globally.
Retired U.S. Navy Capt. James Fanell, former director of intelligence of the U.S. Pacific fleet, said the CCP’s actions run counter to official statements and diplomatic talks.
“This activity comes just days after the Commander of the PLA’s Southern Theater Command, General Wu Yanan, attended the Indo-Pacific Command’s Chiefs of Defense conference in Honolulu—a meeting that was said to help cool tensions between Beijing and Washington. This promise was made against the backdrop of [China’s] cutting-off military-to-military (mil-to-mil) talks with the U.S.,” Fanell said.
