New secret Chinese sub base stirs worldwide headlines

Check this lead on a development making print over the weekend:

“China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.”

Front-page stuff in the U.S.?

No.

It’s from the Daily Telegraph, London, which revealed the development on Friday.

News that China constructed a major nuclear submarine base on the southern tip of Hainan Island, in the South China Sea, brought scant coverage in the U.S. while overseas media gave the development heavy play, complete with satellite photos, notes Grumpy Editor.

Unusual aspect of the project, in the report by Jane’s Intelligence Review, is that there are believed to be 11 tunnels built into hillsides around the base near Sanya, a tourist resort.  The tunnels reach a height of about 60 feet and are capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites.

Over the weekend, the story, also carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP), grabbed worldwide attention from Gulf Times in Qatar to Mercury News in Tasmania.  And in an area of major concern, it also caught the attention of editors at Taipei Times in the Republic of China.

In the U.S., Fox News Radio aired a brief item on Saturday morning.

Hainan Island, off the southern coast of China, also was in the news seven years ago when a U.S. Navy propeller-driven surveillance plane, with 24 crew members aboard, made an emergency landing there following a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.  The Chinese detained and interrogated the Americans for 11 days.

The Daily Telegraph calls the new base a “vast, James Bond-style edifice capable of concealing up to 20 nuclear-powered submarines, which will enable China to project its power across the region.”

Thomas Harding, the Telegraph’s defense correspondent adds, “In what will be a significant challenge to U.S. Navy dominance and to countries ringing the South China Sea, one photograph shows China’s latest 094 nuclear submarine at the base just a few hundred miles from its neighbors.”

Jane’s notes the extent of construction indicates the base could become a key hub for the Chinese navy’s aircraft carriers and other power-projection ships.  The publication adds, “This development so close to the southeast Asia sea lanes so vital to the economies of Asia can only cause concern far beyond these straits.”