U.S. Confirms China’s New Nuclear Sub Sank in Shipyard | China Truths

Welcome to China Truths. In today's news bulletin we will bring you the following contents. U.S. confirms China's new nuclear sub sank in shipyard. China publicly test-fires ICBM for first time in decades. U.S. and Indo-Pacific allies hold joint maritime exercises in South China Sea. Now, let's dive into the details. China Truths. U.S. confirms China's new nuclear sub sank in shipyard. According to U.S. officials, China's newest nuclear-powered submarine sank in a shipyard near Wuhan earlier this year, a setback for one of the goals of the Chinese government. The Wall Street Journal first reported the pier-side sinking, which was later confirmed to The Epoch Times by a Pentagon spokesperson who added that it was unclear whether the submarine was carrying nuclear fuel at the time. The submarine is estimated to have sunk between May and June. Wuhan is home to two state-backed research institutes and is where China's submarine research and development takes place. Satellite images of the new submarine were first shared online by defense analyst and center for a new American security senior adjunct fellow Tom Sugard. Xiding Zhou, an independent analyst following the Chinese government's military developments, told The Epoch Times that the images showed the new model was just a few meters longer than China's diesel-fueled Type 039S submarine. Zhou said it looked like Beijing 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 Beijing that it hasn't kept its weaponry advancements under wraps as well as it might have thought. In recent years, China has aggressively expanded its nuclear arsenal and military vessels, following Chinese leader Xi Jinping's call for war readiness. China has the largest navy in the world, with more than 370 ships, and is developing a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines. The expansion has led the U.S. Navy to acknowledge the need for a larger, more lethal force if it plans to counter the Chinese navy. Earlier this month, the U.S. Navy released a new strategic document to develop readiness for the possibility of war with the People's Republic of China by 2027. A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters that 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 the abbreviation for the People's Liberation Army. It's not surprising that the PLA navy would try to conceal the sinking, the official added. 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. According to a Pentagon report on the Chinese military, as of 2022, China had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines, and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines. That submarine force is expected to grow to 65 by 2025 and 80 by 2035, the U.S. Defense Department has said. China publicly test-fires ICBM for first time in decades China has test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM into the Pacific Ocean, its first such test since 1980. The defense ministry in Beijing said Wednesday's launch was not directed at any country or target and was in line with international law. The ministry said the missile was launched by the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force, PLARF, at 8.44 a.m. local time and, accurately landed in the predetermined sea area. The Chinese government said it was a routine arrangement in our annual training plan. The Chinese government said in an official statement that the missile fired in the direction of French Polynesia was carrying a mock warhead. France has shown little reaction, with French High Commissioner in French Polynesia, Eric Spitz, pointing out that it landed in international waters and that Beijing had notified French authorities ahead of the launch. Australia, New Zealand, and the United States had also been notified. Analysts said the CCP's rare announcement of the test was intended as a warning to the United States and its allies amid rising tensions in surrounding waters. From the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea, that intervention in a conflict in the region would involve America itself being vulnerable to attack. Taiwan's Ministry of Defense confirmed it had detected 23 Chinese military aircraft operating near its territory on the same day as the missile test. It said Beijing had recently conducted intensive missile firing and other military drills near the self-ruled island. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference in Tokyo that Japanese government had not been notified of the launch in advance by China. According to the local Kyoto News Agency, Hayashi said the missile did not pass over Japan and did not damage any Japanese ships. Over the past weeks, Japan has strongly protested incursions by Chinese and Russian military aircraft into its airspace. Chinese and Philippine vessels have also engaged in multiple collisions near Sabina Shoal. The Chinese military has been increasingly flexing its muscles in the Asia-Pacific region and has regularly clashed with Taiwan, the Philippines, and Japan. Former Pentagon official Drew Thompson, who now works at Lee Kuan Yew's School of Public Policy in Singapore, wrote on X, China issued a notice to airmen and mariners that the MAK warhead would splash down in the Tahiti Flight Information Region, in French Polynesia's EEZ. Something for Macron to consider as China proposes a peace plan for Ukraine. Thompson added, the missile's second and third stages came down near the Philippines. That does not make it a signal specifically for the Philippines. Anything China shoots, flies or sails into the Pacific has to go over or through the first island chain. Wednesday's missile test came as the United Nations General Assembly met in New York. China is one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council and is seeking to gain influence over key departments, including human rights. Geoffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said, We're entering a new age. We're entering an age where the United States and China are engulfed in what feels like an arms race. On August 21, Naval News reported the People's Liberation Army PLA had launched its most sophisticated non-nuclear submarine to date. Since at least March, the PLARF has had hypersonic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons to targets in the United States. The PLARF is building and arming massive silo fields with nuclear missiles in China's northwest provinces. An annual arms report published on June 17 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said China was in the process of significantly expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal at a pace that might lead to having more intercontinental ballistic missiles than the United States or Russia in the next decade. The report said between January 2023 and January 2024, China increased its nuclear stockpile to 500 warheads from 410. According to the Pentagon's annual assessment of China's military capabilities, China had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of 2023 and will probably have over 1,000 by 2030. In June, Hans M. Christensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, said, China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country. In nearly all of the nuclear-armed states, there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces. In February, U.S. Strategic Command Commander General Anthony Cotton told the Senate Armed Services Committee that China had nuclear superiority in Asia. Cotton stated, the PRC has approximately 1,000 medium- and intermediate-range dual-capable conventional or nuclear ballistic missiles capable of inflicting significant damage to U.S., allied, or partner forces and homelands in the Indo-Pacific. China conducted its first test-firing of an ICBM in May 1980, when it sent a DF-5 missile almost 6,000 miles. Since 1980, China has conducted hundreds of underground nuclear weapons tests while its neighbor, North Korea has test-fired several ballistic missiles, the most recent of which, in December, traveled around 600 miles. In April, North Korea fired a suspected intermediate missile into the Sea of Japan, drawing condemnation from the United States, Japan and South Korea. Although China and North Korea share some military secrets, it is not clear if there is any coordination of missile tests between Beijing and Pyongyang. There are nine nuclear-armed states, including the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. U.S. and Indo-Pacific allies hold joint maritime exercises in South China Sea. The United States and four of its allies conducted joint maritime exercises in a part of the South China Sea on September 28, as China held its own military exercises in a disputed ocean territory. The day-long exercise involving the United States, the Philippines, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand took place in Manila's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, according to a statement from the U.S. Seventh Fleet. Vice Admiral Fred Katcher, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, said, Maritime cooperative activities accelerate our already strong allied and partner combat readiness and interoperability. Katcher said the joint drill demonstrates the United States' enduring commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and building its operational skillsets in one of the most dynamic maritime regions in the world. The joint exercise comes as the Chinese government has been criticized for its increasingly aggressive actions against its neighbors, particularly Taiwan, the Philippines, and Japan. In recent weeks, Manila has criticized Beijing for ramming its boats, blasting its boats with water cannons, and firing flares at its aircraft, with most of the incidents occurring around the contested Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea. General Romeo S. Bronner, Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said in a statement that the joint exercise was significant. This underscores our shared commitments to upholding the right to freedom of navigation and overflight, other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace, as well as respect for maritime rights under international law, as reflected in the U.N. Convention on the Law of Bronner said the U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Howard, DDG-83, and two helicopters took part in the joint exercise. Other units included the Philippine Navy's BRP Antonio Luna, FF151, Australian Navy Leander-class light cruiser HMAS Sydney, D-48, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force JS Sazanami, DD-113, and Royal New Zealand Navy HMNZS Aotearoa, A-11. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on September 28, said Australia has consistently pressed China on peace and stability in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. Taiwan's defense ministry has reported a surge of Chinese military activity around the island in recent days. On September 27, the defense ministry said it had detected 41 Chinese military aircraft near the island's vicinity in the past 24 hours. The day before, it warned of 43 Chinese military aircraft operating near the island. On September 25, China further escalated regional tensions after it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. In response, Taiwan's foreign ministry issued a statement calling on Beijing to peace and stability and escalate regional tensions. Also on September 28, China's Southern Theater Command announced routine air and naval drills around Scarborough Shoal, an atoll in the South China Sea. The drills included early warning and reconnaissance exercises and sea and air patrols. Some countries outside of the region are meddling in the South China Sea and creating regional instability, the command said, without naming any countries. It did not say how long its drills would last. Scarborough Shoal is 124 miles off the Philippines, within its exclusive economic zone. The command issued its announcement a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City. The State Department said Blinken spoke about China's dangerous and destabilizing actions in the South China Sea, the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and the need to maintain open lines of communication between the two sides. In June, Blinken affirmed Washington's ironclad commitments to the Philippines during a call with Philippine counterpart Enrique Manalo. Blinken also spoke to Wang about China's support for Russia's defense industrial base and made clear the need for China to address Russia's threat to transatlantic security, according to the readout. Following the meeting, Blinken reiterated his concerns about China's support for Moscow's aggression in Ukraine. Blinken said during a press conference that so when Beijing says on the one hand that it wants peace, it wants to see an end to the conflict, but on the other hand is allowing its companies to take actions that are actually helping Putin continue the aggression, that doesn't add up. About 70 percent of the machine tools that Russia is importing and 90 percent of the microelectronics originate from China and Hong Kong, according to Blinken. This is materially helping the Russians produce the missiles, the rockets, the armored vehicles, the munitions that they need to perpetuate the war, to continue their aggression, Blinken said. Blinken and Wang also met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum in Laos in July. Don't forget to leave a comment in the section below to share your opinions on today's topic with us. 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