DM: British intelligence reported the death of 55 crew members of a Chinese nuclear submarine
A Chinese nuclear submarine has fallen into a trap for Western submarines set by the Chinese military in the Yellow Sea, British intelligence said. 55 crew members were killed. The first reports of the submarine crash appeared on social networks at the end of August - at the same time, the Chinese Defense Minister, allegedly accused of corruption, stopped appearing in public. The Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China denies data on the accident, Taiwan refuses to disclose information because of the "sensitivity" of the issue. Details are in the material of "Gazeta.Ru».
The Chinese nuclear submarine (submarine) of project 093 "Shan" crashed in the Yellow Sea, the Daily Mail reported, citing a secret British intelligence report. According to media reports, the incident occurred on August 21, as a result of which 55 Chinese servicemen were killed.
"It took six hours to repair and ascend the vessel. The onboard oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure," the report says.
According to the intelligence service, 22 officers, 7 cadets, 9 petty officers and 17 sailors of the National Liberation Army of China, including the captain of the submarine, Colonel Xue Yun-Peng, died due to lack of oxygen.
According to the Daily Mail, the incident report has a high level of secrecy, independent confirmations of data on the wreck of the submarine have not been received at the moment. The Royal Navy of Great Britain declined to comment on the information.
What they say in China
The first reports of the submarine crash appeared on social networks at the end of August. Initially, it was assumed that the accident occurred in the Taiwan Strait.
On August 22, the representative of the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, Sun Lifan, said at a press conference [...] that there was no evidence to confirm this information.
On September 12, the assistant to the deputy head of the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Taiwan Armed Forces, Major General Huang Wenqi, refused to comment on the incident reports, since the information about the incident is "absolutely confidential." He added that "it is inconvenient to disclose information because of sensitivity."
The official representative of the Ministry of Defense of China Wu Qian at the end of August denied reports of an accident.
According to the Daily Mail, Beijing did not seek international assistance in connection with the incident.
The missing Defense Minister
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu stopped appearing in public on August 29 of this year. On September 7-8, he missed the annual meeting on military cooperation organized by Vietnam on the border with China - according to Reuters, Beijing notified Hanoi that the minister could not attend the event due to "health problems."
The US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, also stated that Lee missed a "scheduled meeting with the commander-in-chief of the Singapore Navy," Sean Wat, during the latter's visit to China, but the Singaporean side did not report that such a meeting was planned.
On September 14, the British newspaper Financial Times, citing unnamed representatives of the US administration, reported that the head of the Chinese Defense Ministry may be under investigation.
The American The Washington Post, citing sources in the defense industry of the People's Republic of China, wrote that the "disappearance" of Li Shangfu may be related to suspicions of corruption. According to the Wall Street Journal, the minister "was taken away by the authorities for questioning."
On September 27, the Defense Minister missed a training session of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with the participation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, while he attended a similar meeting on June 30.
The Chinese authorities did not explain the "disappearance" of the minister. The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Mao Ning, said in mid-September that she "knew nothing" about this situation.
Semyon Sleepy
