One of Xi Jinping’s elite state-of-the-art military submarines surfaced within view of a group of Taiwanese fishermen this week. This comes as the Chinese communist leader ramps up its nuclear weapon production.
China’s nuclear-armed Jin-class ballistic missile submarine was spotted in the Taiwanese strait near Penghu Islands, just 200 km (125 miles) from Taiwan’s western coast. The sighting of the Chinese submarine is incredibly rare since there are only six active Jin-class nuclear submarines.
The fishermen took several photographs of the Chinese People’s Liberation Navy submarine which surfaced at around 5am on Tuesday morning. The submarine remained stationary for several minutes before it moved off alongside several other Chinese military warships toward mainland China.
There were reports in Taiwanese media saying the submarine looked in “distress”. The nuclear-powered submarine can operate underwater for months at a time, and rarely surface.
A Taiwanese security source said the submarine may have experienced a malfunction and was forced to surface.
Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said they have a “grasp” of the intelligence situation, but declined to say how they were monitoring it or give details.
Mr Koo said: “We must be fully alert to China’s continued military harassment and grey zone threats and must always understand China’s constant salami-slicing attempts to unilaterally change the status quo.
“We must be alert at all times, but not panic nor be apathetic, and calmly deal with the situation in the strait. We won’t be the one provoking, and call on China not to be a troublemaker.”
The 11,000-ton Jin-class submarine, which is often nicknamed the humpback submarine, can store up to 12 nuclear missiles.
Ballistic missile submarines are not designed to attack ships, but to launch ballistic missiles at targets on land.
The sighting comes as China’s leadership has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan. Beijing asserts sovereignty over the democratically governed island. The narrow Taiwan Strait separates Taiwan from China and is a frequent source of tension between the two sides.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said that the country had detected 20 Chinese military planes and seven vessels around the island in the past 24 hours since the submarine sighting.
China is ramping up its production of nuclear warheads and is set to have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as the US and Russia by 2030.
Beijing has produced almost 100 nuclear warheads in the past 12 months, giving them a total of 500 in their surging arsenal, according to the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Associate senior fellow at SIPRI, Hans M. Kristensen, said: “China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country.”
