Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) today said the military has a grasp of the situation after reports that a Chinese submarine sank earlier this year.
A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that China's new first-in-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank alongside a pier sometime between May and June.
The official said it was not clear what caused it to sink or whether it had nuclear fuel on board at the time.
Photo: Reuters
A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington said they had no information to provide.
In Taipei, Koo told reporters that authorities "have a grasp of the situation through multiple intelligence and surveillance methods," but did not elaborate.
China already has the largest navy in the world, with more than 370 ships, and it has embarked on production of a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines.
"In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA's [Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s] internal accountability and oversight of China's defense industry, which has long been plagued by corruption," the US official said.
"It's not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal" the sinking, the official added.
In June, pictures appeared online of a Chinese nuclear submarine surfacing in the Taiwan Strait near Taiwan fishers.
The Chinese submarine news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
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.
As of 2022, China had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines, according to a Pentagon report on China's military.
That submarine force is expected to grow to 65 by next year and 80 by 2035, the US Department of Defense has said.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS