Hong Kong, October 8 (HBTV): There has been intense Western media reporting alleging that a novel Chinese submarine prototype destined for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sank while under construction at the Wuhan Shuangliu shipyard on the Yangtze river four months ago. 

Thomas Shugart, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security and a former US Navy submariner, first noticed in satellite imagery an unusual collection of four crane barges around what appeared to be a submarine either fully or partially submerged. The Wall Street Journal was the first to publish a story on this speculative event on September 26, with many other outlets rapidly jumping on the story. 

The hybrid submarine in question was a first-of-class Type 041, also known as the Zhou class, which state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation was building in Wuhan. Satellite images showed crane barges were present from at least 12-17 June, as well as a boom net to capture oil spills. Such cranes would be necessary to lift a submarine off a riverbed. By the first week of July, the barges were gone, the submarine presumably salvaged, and activity seemed to have returned to normal. What attracted the most attention were allegations that this submarine featured a nuclear reactor. 

Importantly, there has been no release of radiation nor any evidence of a nuclear emergency response, so this was certainly not a Chernobyl-type incident. 

An unnamed Pentagon spokesperson quoted by The Wall Street Journal article said the Type 041 is a "new class of nuclear submarine that is similar in size to navy conventionally powered submarines, but with a small nuclear reactor".    

The source added, "As such, we do not know if the submarine reactor was fueled at the time of incident, or if it is going to be relocated to a known nuclear-certified facility for its initial fueling, such as Huludao shipyard, which has built all previous navy nuclear submarine classes." The American spokesperson provocatively noted: "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 pier-side." 

China has been silent on the incident, neither confirming nor denying it. When asked about the potential incident, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a Beijing press conference on 27 September that he was unfamiliar with the topic. A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington also said, "We are not familiar with the situation you mentioned and currently have no information to provide." 

(ANI)