A confidential British report has revealed that a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine was caught in a trap targeting Western submarines, including the United States, and its oxygen system failed, killing 55 sailors. When related rumors spread on social media ( SNS ) last August, the Chinese government dismissed it as a rumor.
The British Daily Mail quoted a confidential British report on the 3rd (local time) and said, “While the Chinese military’s nuclear submarine 093-417 was performing a mission off the coast of Shandong Province on August 21, the Chinese military installed it to catch submarines from the United States, the United Kingdom, etc. “It appears that 55 crew members died after colliding with a chain and an obstacle,” the report said. It is said that it took six hours to repair and raise the submarine to the surface due to a trap-related collision, and in the meantime, the oxygen system failed and the crew members died from hypoxia. Afterwards, local media outlets, including The Times, also published similar reports. The dead included 22 officers, seven officer cadets, nine non-commissioned officers and 17 sailors, the report said.
A Royal Navy submariner, who requested anonymity, told the Daily Mail, “If the nuclear submarine had become stuck in an obstacle and the submarine’s batteries had discharged, the air handling system would likely have failed, which could have led to suffocation or poisoning.”
On the night of the accident on August 21, the YouTube channel ‘Luther Media’ released a video saying, “Top secret information: 6 hours ago, a Chinese attack nuclear submarine had an accident while performing a mission in the Taiwan Strait and all officers were killed.” . According to Chinese Internet media outlet Fengpai, the channel’s host claimed that this information came from the Joint Operations Control Center of the Chinese Communist Party’s스포츠토토 Central Military Commission, but did not provide specific evidence.
Afterwards, HI Sutton, a submarine expert at a naval media outlet, posted related news on social media under the premise that “this report has not been confirmed to date,” and it spread rapidly. Feng Pai pointed to Luther Media as the source of these rumors and claimed, “It is an anti-China account that spreads conspiracy theories and false information.”
The next day, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense announced, “We are using detection methods to identify all air and sea movements around the Taiwan Strait, and there is no information that can confirm the rumors on the Internet.” Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Wu Qian then said in a briefing on the 31st, “The related news is complete nonsense,” and “We hope that netizens will pay attention to authoritative information from the authorities and not be swayed by rumors.”
However, as the details were included in a confidential British report written based on national defense information and classified at a high level, doubts are growing that the accident may be true.
The Type 093 submarine, which was commissioned in 2006, has a total length of 110m and an underwater displacement of 7,000 to 7,200 tons (improved type). She can reach speeds of up to 30 knots (56 km/h) underwater and has a maximum depth of 300 m. It was armed with six 533 mm torpedo tubes and 12 cruise missiles. The improved version was lengthened to carry 24 cruise missiles.