Alleged Chinese Nuclear Submarine Sinking: Separating Facts From Bullshit

Western defence media has recently been buzzing with the story of a Chinese SSN allegedly sinking in the Yangtze River near Wuhan. But is it actually true? We take a look at the likelihood of this.

Keywords: China, PLA, PLAN, Chinese Navy, modern warships, naval technology, X-stern, X-rudder, Chinese submarine, Zhou class submarine

[huatlam]

Lucky for Tom Shugart. He qualifies for the $1.6 billion Anti China Funds.

[ranochung]

And this news come out just 1 day after china test their icbm.. 😅

[DannyChean]

For the 1000th time, our nuclear sub shipyard in Huludao is large enough to build a dozen of them at a time. But hey, we are stupid enough to decide to build one, 400-foot long and 50-foot high, in the narrowness of mid Yangtze river for no reason, close to huge population, right?

[taiwanstillisntacountry]

The scammers from scam-center Mumbai-Dharavi were going nuts😂😂😂

[SuryaKumar-jk]

Fake news.
Firstly, the only place in China where nuclear submarines are built is in Bohai Bay, which is a bay near Beijing, while Wuhan only has conventional submarine construction plants.
Secondly, the depth of the so-called sunken area is only 6 meters, even smaller than the diameter of China's latest conventional submarines.
Thirdly, the black shadow is clearly the projection of the crane on the leftmost ship, and another evidence is that the second, third, and fourth ships from left to right also have this shadow.
Fourthly, this news originates from the United States. There are too many fake news about the PLA in the United States, including the news of the sinking of a Chinese nuclear submarine last year, and even Taiwan has denied this news.
I think, it's probably because the speed at which PLAN builds warships in recent years has been too fast, making the US Navy pale in comparison. Therefore, some people within the US always want to see PLAN's jokes, and even these jokes are fabricated from the beginning.

[taiwanstillisntacountry]

I can only say : $2, 500, 000, 000 "well" spent money.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Remember WW2 propaganda?
GI's : dont be afraid of the MG-42.

[directxxxx]

Every news agency in the United States tried their best to refuse to talk about the successful launch of China's ICBM DF31AG, and now they are very actively talking about China's nuclear submarines! We need to understand their wounded little hearts! 😂😂😂

[olm]

The level of copium in the dying empire has reached absurd levels. Remember the whole "spy" balloon fiasco? Lol

[momsspaghetti]

I mean, the US Gov't did spend over $1.6 bln to try and discredit China on top of the ignorant sinophobia all over in the internet.

[jioklgt]

Tom Shugart sounds like another Gordon Chang

[novaskies]

The water at that location is 5m. Any sub that size would have to be 6.5m or larger. lol.

[BrandyHeng]

Many years ago, US satellites detected round shapes in China, leading to the assumption they were missile silos and investigators was surprised to find nothing more than the traditional round Tulou Hakka minority houses.

"Stupidity knows no bounds"

[mythbusterthe]

The newly passed USD1.6 billion annual anti-China disinformation budget is at work. 😂😂😂
All Chinese Military watchers know that China do not build SSN submarine at Wuchang Shipyard which is unsuitable due to the shallow depth of the river.

[eymaslacker]

Nah the new Zhou class submarine is a nuclear micro sub powered by warp engines and equipped with the latest weapons technology called phasers and photon torpedoes. It can fly to outer space and has energy shields that adapt to weapons fire. But the Chinese completely failed at making it because the USA used their hidden Infinity Gauntlet to sink it. That's why USA is the best

I mean if the people in the USA want to fantasize, might as well go all the way

[JCSY]

Not worth China's time to even comment. 😂😂😂

Waste of time to comment on baseless propaganda news.

[justme]

when you see the source of the info... you know it is usa propaganda machine at work 🤣

[SuryaKumar-jk]

The "Zhou-class vessel" is not something that I think we've heard much/anything about in public reporting, so the fact that it even exists is surprising.

Moreover, this happened at Wuhan, not Huludao, which is significant, as Wuhan is typically not used for nuclear powered vessel construction, as far as I know. Thus it seems that this may be a one-off specialized vessel for testing purposes(?). Genuinely not sure.

Intriguingly, the article says: "While the submarine was salvaged, it will likely take many months before it can be put to sea."

Yes Michael R Gordon and Thomas Shugart are complete tools, and the former has a history of repeating incorrect USG-sourced info (see: his Iraq War reporting). But as I have noted below, this whole situation has enough photographic evidence to suggest that the story has at least some level of truth validity. Could it ultimately prove false, a misinterpretation, or outright propaganda? Yes. But using deflection as an rhetorical tool to respond to this story is hardly increasing the credibility of denials.

Shugart, the og source for the photos, clearly misidentified some shadows as a submarine. But then again, if the submarine was wholly underneath the water, we wouldn't see any obvious surface protrusions anyways. This story may be low confidence intelligence being re-stated as seemingly high confidence (something Gordon has done in the past), with the anonymous senior defense official being quoted just bs'ing for PR purposes (not like he can say anything truly class without getting in serious trouble in most cases). Note how the anonymous official that is quoted never actually confirms or denies the core claim of the story (that a nuclear powered submarine sunk at the pier). The syntax of the quote seems to indicate that it was Gordon, the journalist, who first brought the claim of a sunken submarine to the attention of the anon official, who then reacted to it, and had his quote reprinted. Thus Gordon was leading the official on rather than reporting an original declaration based on classified intel.

I wouldn't take WSJ's coverage on Chinese military matters seriously, that's not their field.

Everyone knows that Wuhan doesn't build nuclear subs, that's Huludao's job. Wuhan builds conventional subs.

China as a matter of national policy does not build any kind of conventional nuclear reactor upstream of major rivers. A nuclear reactor accident in Wuhan would contaminate everything downstream, which includes some of the most densely populated and wealthiest regions of China.

Last time, the fuel tanks of Chinese missiles were filled with water.

This time, the Chinese nuclear submarine sank and was still filled with water.

It seems that the biggest enemy of the PLA is water. Only water can defeat the PLA. I strongly recommend that the United States research new weapons related to water.

Do any of those American heroes have water-related superpowers? LAMO

Zhou is not a class of nuclear submarines. China only has 1 class of nuclear submarine, the Shang, or Type 09III.

Wuhan does not build nuclear subs.

Nuclear subs don't go to Wuhan, which is almost 1000kms inland.

Guessing this article is based off another with satellite imagery of some barges around a conventional sub.

All of China's current commercial nuclear power plants are located along the coast!

The current American media equals the 1980s Soviet Pravda. If you look at the latter, you will see that it was full of completely made-up stories about an imminent American collapse.

[CroArmyNikRus]

I was waiting for this video from u for days Brother respect from Croatia!

[thehumus]

The first time, I read that news
"Wuchang Shipyard not build SSN or SSBN ever, isnt ?"
what a hoax

[liesterminator]

That's why I never miss this channel...logical factual well researched piece ... Good work sir