The Chinese army suffered a serious setback in the spring, with the sinking of one of its latest generation nuclear-powered submarines which was under construction on a shipyard, revealed Thursday, September 26, the Wall Street Journal. The incident, which has remained secret until now, was immediately confirmed by officials from the US State Department. China made no comment.
Submersion is certainly one of the skills expected of a submarine, but this dive seems to have gotten out of control: according to satellite images broadcast by the American company Planet Labs, the ship which was moored in mid-May , at a shipyard in Wuhan, on the banks of the Yangzi River, in central China, suddenly appeared submerged in mid-June, with cranes working around it, possibly to refloat it.
According to information from Wall Street Journalthe vessel was the first example of a Zhou-class nuclear submarine, a new type of vessel equipped with technology intended to be particularly discreet at the bottom of the water. It was able to be salvaged, but its restoration could require months of work if water was able to seep inside.
Being able to invade Taiwan from 2027
This accident is a significant failure for the Chinese submarine program. Despite its modernization efforts, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) still suffers from major weaknesses, particularly due to the corruption that reigns within it. The army underwent a major purge in 2023 which cost the two generals responsible for the missile force – responsible for part of China’s deterrence – their jobs, as well as Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who was replaced in October 2023. However, the revelation of this sinking comes the day after a test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific, the first since the 1980s outside Chinese territory, precisely supposed to erase these setbacks.
This construction accident, timely revealed by American intelligence, takes place in a context of fierce competition between the United States and China, particularly in the military naval field. Since 2020, Beijing has indeed surpassed Washington in the number of hulls. The Chinese fleet now has around 370 vessels, according to the latest report from the American Department of Defense on the state of the Chinese army, published at the end of 2023, while the United States remains below the threshold of 300, notably for reasons saturation of their shipyards.
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