So, apparently, China had a bit of an oops moment with one of their shiny new submarines. According to US media reports that surfaced on Thursday, one of China’s latest nuclear-powered submarines sank – yes, sank – while it was sitting in the dock a few months ago.
The reports from the Wall Street Journal and CNN, quoting unnamed US officials, said this little mishap happened sometime between late May and early June. It all went down at a shipyard near Wuhan. Satellite images from June seem to show cranes at the facility, possibly trying to lift the submarine back up.
Now, the submarine in question isn’t just any submarine; it’s an attack submarine from China’s fancy new “Zhou class.” The Wall Street Journal said the submarine was getting its final touches before it could leave the port when, whoops, it went belly up. Well, it’s like tripping right before the finish line.
According to CNN’s “senior defense official” (no name, of course, there’s still some mystery about whether this sub had nuclear fuel onboard when it sank or whether they emptied it after the accident. So far, no one seems to know what exactly caused the sinking. There’s also no word on whether China has checked if any radioactive material got leaked into the water as a result of the whole debacle.
While all this submarine drama was unfolding, US officials said that China might be trying to keep the whole thing hush-hush. And it’s obvious!
No country wants to announce to the world, “Hey, remember that super high-tech, expensive submarine we were showing off? Yeah, it sunk… in our own dock.” As per a source quoted by the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese military (or the PLA Navy) didn’t want to admit their newest nuclear-powered submarine had gone for an unscheduled swim. The source also mentioned that this raises questions about China’s training and how well they’re managing their defense industry.
When asked about the incident, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the US kept it vague, saying something like, “We don’t know what you’re talking about, and we don’t have any information to give you.” A classic non-answer.
Notably, Pentagon reports that China’s navy is the biggest in the world in terms of sheer numbers. They’ve got around 355 ships and submarines, give or take. By the last year, the US estimated that China had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines, and 48 diesel-powered ones. That’s a lot of underwater firepower. And with tensions rising over Taiwan and some regional squabbles in the South China Sea, Beijing has been working overtime to beef up its navy even more. But incidents like these lay bare the weaknesses in the Chinese defense apparatus.
In the end, submarine mishaps happen, but sinking while docked is a bit like a car stalling in your driveway – inconvenient, embarrassing, and not something you want to tell your neighbors about.
