What happened

The Wall Street Journal writes that, based on intelligence from American officials, the accident occurred near Wuhan in late May or early June. The authorities concealed the fact of the disaster.

Reportedly it was a nuclear submarineIt is usually produced in the northeastern Chinese city of Huludao. However, it appears that this ship was built at the Wuchang Shipyard near Wuhan.

According to sources, this was the first submarine of the new class of submarines known as “Zhou” to have the characteristic X-shaped stern.

Details remain secret due to the secret nature of the entire operation and the refusal of the Chinese government and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to even acknowledge that anything happened. But experts outside the US government It is believed that nuclear fuel was probably carried on.

It’s no wonder that the PLA Navy is trying to hide the fact that its new, state-of-the-art nuclear attack submarine sank near the pier. Besides 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.
– A representative of the US Department of Defense said on condition of anonymity.

Although satellite images showed the wreckage of the submarine had been recovered, US officials told the newspaper they did not know whether Chinese officials had taken water samples from the part of the Yangtze River where the boat sank to check for radiation. But experts say this everything is probably fineBecause the risk of nuclear leakage during submarine navigation is low.