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.
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