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Taiwan’s top official confirms PLA-Navy submarine accident that left 55 crew members ‘killed’

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A Taiwanese official has acknowledged that a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) submarine had an accident last year, months after unconfirmed reports emerged that a PLAN Type 093 submarine sank near the Taiwan Strait.

70 dead in China’s biggest submarine tragedy: Looking back to 2003, when rumors emerged that the People’s Liberation Army Navy had lost its nuclear submarine

Last August, unconfirmed reports emerged on social media suggesting that a Chinese submarine had crashed while transiting the Taiwan Strait. In October 2023, British media, citing British intelligence, reported that the Chinese submarine, a nuclear-powered Type 093, had a serious accident when it ran into a “chain and anchor trap” designed to catch Western ships lurking off China’s Shandong province.

Some reports following the initial report claimed that the submarine sank in the water and the crew suffocated after a “catastrophic failure” of the submarine’s oxygen system. While the accident was previously believed to have occurred in the Taiwan Strait, later reports suggested that the Chinese submarine sank in the Yellow Sea.

When the unconfirmed reports first made the rounds on Platform X (formerly Twitter) in August, former Taiwan Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Sun Li-fang said the country’s joint intelligence and surveillance system had found no evidence of a submarine accident.

Taiwan acknowledges Chinese submarine accident

Major General Huang Wenqi, deputy director of intelligence in the General Staff of Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, said he would not comment as the information in question was “absolutely confidential.” He added: “Due to the sensitivity of the information in question, it is not appropriate to publish it.”

However, the position of the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense soon changed. A month later, in September, the ministry stated: “This matter is sensitive. It is not our place to comment on it.”

However, the latest development, which comes amid rising tensions between the two sides, is that the head of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, Tsai Ming-Yen, Finally authorized A local publication reported on May 29 that a Type 09III Shang-class nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) of the People’s Liberation Army Navy suffered an accident last year.

The admission reportedly came when National Security Director Cai Mingyan and relevant ministries were invited by the Legislative Yuan’s Commission on Foreign Affairs and National Defense to submit a project report on the situation across the Taiwan Strait after the inauguration of the Taiwan president.

When asked by Wang Dingyu, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, whether the National Security Bureau was aware of the alleged sinking of the Chinese ship last year, Chi Minyan said he had been closely monitoring the matter because it happened at a time when China was conducting military exercises in the strait, which had a direct impact on the island’s security.

Cai said the shipwreck was found to be outside the Chinese military exercise zone and the cause of the accident was still unknown. China has now completed the salvage of the ship, he told lawmakers.

Cai further said that the Type 093 accident was not the only one in recent times. He said that before Chinese exercises began in Taiwan recently, a small Chinese research drone, probably launched from a ship, crashed in southwestern Taiwan. Although China dispatched ships to recover the drone, the area was not sealed off by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The EurAsian Times has no information about this accident.

This could be a relief for OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) and naval analysts who investigated the incident and found that a massive tragedy involving a Type 093 nuclear submarine had occurred somewhere in the region.

Reports sparked concern, China remains silent

Reports of the accident involving the Type 093 or Shang-class nuclear submarines, one of the most powerful submarines in the PLA Navy fleet, began coming in on August 21. 2023Some reports suggested that the entire crew of the ship had perished. China did not confirm any of these reports. The PLAN has six Shang-class nuclear-powered submarines.

After the incident, experts contacted by EurAsian Times predicted that Beijing would try to cover up the incident, given its penchant for asserting its power. They also mentioned that such incidents tend to come to light nonetheless.

Vice Admiral AB Singh, former Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern and Western Naval Command, told the EurAsian Times: “The answer is: you can hide it, but for how long? The many disasters in China give an indication of how slow news is in spreading.”

Another Indian naval official, who asked not to be identified, said that such situations cannot be kept secret for long, especially when there have been casualties. If the ship had sunk, the intelligence agencies would have known about it. It may only be a matter of time before it becomes public knowledge.

“If the submarine was submerged when it sank, then yes (it would elude satellites). But there are so many other ways in which the absence of a submarine would be felt. And if the accident happened in the Taiwan Strait, the depth is shallow and in most parts, divers can also go down and investigate if the area is known,” the official added.

Shang-class submarines Type 093
Shang-class submarines Type 093

While China rarely admits its casualties or accidents, submarine tragedies are quite common. For example, in early 2021, a US nuclear submarine collided with an object in the South China Sea. Nevertheless, such incidents are dangerous.

Nuclear submarines are one of the world’s deadliest weapons platforms and are vulnerable to underwater accidents that can result in nuclear leaks, whether they are nuclear-powered ballistic submarines (SSBNs) or nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs).

In the 200 years (from 1774 to 1985) that submarines were in service, there were over 1,750 accidents. Of these, 1,448 were lost to enemy action and 302 were lost due to accidents. Some of these accidents involved nuclear submarines. The causes of nuclear submarine accidents vary, but almost half of the accidents involve problems with the nuclear reactors on board.

Unless the Chinese Ministry of Defense releases details of the incident, any claims about the cause of the accident and its consequences are pure speculation.

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