China Embarrassed When Brand-New Secret Nuclear Submarine Instantly Sinks

The country refuses to say anything about the debacle.

Sub Drop

Amid ongoing competition with the United States, China experienced a major setback earlier this year when its secret nuclear submarine sank right after being launched.

As the Wall Street Journal reports based on intelligence from American officials, the incident that occurred in late May or early June near Wuhan was quickly and quietly covered up by government officials.

Though most of the country's nuclear attack subs are manufactured in the northeastern Chinese city of Huludao, this new one seems to have been built in the Wuchang Shipyard near Wuhan. It was, WSJ's sources indicate, the first of a new class of submarines known as Zhou and featured a distinctive X-shaped stern.

Because of the secretive nature of the entire operation — and the refusal by the Chinese government and its People's Liberation Army (PLA) to even admit that anything happened — the sinking remains murky. Experts outside the American government believe, however, that it was likely carrying nuclear fuel.

"It’s not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal the fact that their new first-in-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank pierside," a senior American defense official told the newspaper on condition of anonymity. "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."

Informed Observer

Though satellite imagery acquired by the WSJ has since confirmed the existence of the new Zhou-class nuclear sub, a defense expert's posts on social media may well have been the first inklings the public got about it.

Over the summer, former US submarine officer Thomas Shugart posted on X that he'd spotted floating cranes near the shipyard that, to him, seemed to signal there "may be a new class of Chinese submarine out there." He was, as it turns out, correct — but he wasn't aware at the time that it was nuclear.

"Can you imagine a US nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it?" Shugart said in an interview with the WSJ. "I mean, Holy Cow!"

Though satellite images suggest the wreckage has been salvaged, American officials told the newspaper that there's been no indication that Chinese officials have sampled the part of the Yangtze River where it sank for radiation. This isn't the end of the world, Shugart suggests, because the risk of a nuclear leak that soon into the sub's voyage is low.

Though there's a possibility people were killed or injured during the sinking, there hasn't been any intelligence that confirms or denies this — which is yet another illustration of just how hazy this entire debacle really is.

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