China to display nuclear submarine at fleet parade

China, for the first time in recent history will reveal its naval might, when it will display some of its nuclear powered submarines during a fleet parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Navy.

Talking to state-run news agency, Xinhua, Ding Yiping, deputy commander of the PLA Navy said "It is not a secret that China has nuclear submarines, which are key to safeguarding our country's national security," but added that the number of nuclear submarines that China possesses is far less than those with the US and Russia.

Since the naval parade will have high-level naval delegations from 29 countries, nearly thirty Chinese naval ships and planes along with 21 naval vessels from 14 countries will be taking part in the fleet review, which is being held at the northern port city of Qingdao from 20 to 24 April.

This is the second time in recent months that China is showing off its naval strength. In December, China sent two warships outside its territorial waters for the first time to the Gulf of Aden to defend Chinese vessels from pirates based in Somalia.

The Indian Navy is also taking part in the parade and has sent the Delhi class guided missile destroyer INS Mumbai and Ranveer class destroyer INS Ranveer along with guided missile corvette INS Khanjar and tanker INS Jyoti.

The two countries' naval warships have been conducting joint naval exercises and visiting each others ports, but it is the first time that India has been invited to participate in China's naval parade.

China will be displaying some of its naval vessels and weapons during the fleet review with most of the naval vessels coming from the Beihai Fleet while a few will come from the Donghai Fleet and the Nanhai Fleet.

Defence commentators, however have said that the Chinese government is using the fleet review to not only display its naval strength but assert itself as an emerging new blue water power.

In pursuit of this ambition, China is moving rapidly in developing new warships, stealth submarines and long-range missiles. It has also bought an old aircraft carrier from Russia on the pretext of using it for leisure activities, but it is now reported that Chinese architects are performing reverse engineering to enable China to build its own and only aircraft carrier.

The Chinese decision to build a blue-water navy is influenced by two principal factors. The first is to build a blue-water navy that reflects its power in the region and secondly, it still has territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Russia and India.

Towards this end, China has increased its naval budget by 60 per cent since the past four years and is beginning to acquire capabilities that can even challenge the US position as Asia's premier military power.

China has said that its defense expenditure for 2007 was around $52 billion and around $61 billion in 2008. But this is ridiculed by defence experts, who say that Beijing's defence procurement far exceeds the expenditure that it has portrayed.

In January 2009, the US Senate Armed Services Committee said that the cyber and anti-satellite warfare, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry, nuclear submarines, and ballistic missiles of China are of the greatest concern to the US military.

What has alarmed most nations in the region as well as the US, is the fact that China has secretly built a massive underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten its Asian neighbours and challenge the US navy's supremacy in the region.

The Sanya base on the southern tip of Hainan island has been built to house about twenty nuclear ballistic missile submarines and a few aircraft carriers.

China has constructed a massive 43 feet (13 meters) wide and 60 ft high concrete tunnel entrances into hillsides around the base, where about 20 nuclear submarines can be hid from spy satellites.

The base is approximately 15 miles (24 km) east of Qingdao on the Yellow Sea and spans the entire bay covering 1.2 miles (1.9 km) across, which has six piers, a dry dock, numerous service facilities, and an underground submarine tunnel.

The most astounding feature of the base is the underground submarine tunnel, which appears to have a railway system connected to the interior of the facility.

The base can maintain communication and independent operations in the event of a war, where the base commander can control his submarines for extended periods even when cut off from all outside support and be protected against nuclear or chemical attack as well.