As China builds a strong maritime force, its submarine fleet has undergone rapid expansion over the past few years. However, some submarine tragedies remain etched in the psyche of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) despite the advancements it has made. This includes the Ming-class 361 accident.
Considered the ultimate stealth weapon, submarines rise from the depths of the ocean to hound the target without being detected. The PLAN possesses a robust fleet of both diesel-electric submarines and nuclear-powered submarines.
As of August 2024, the PLAN had 60 submarines in its fleet, a number expected to increase to 65 (or more) by 2025.
Scholars and dedicated PLA watchers have predicted that China could double its submarine force by 2035, as submarines are one of the few systems that cannot be tracked by an adversary from space. If these estimates are anything to go by, the PLAN could commission an average of 1.5 nuclear submarines annually.
China utilizes its submarines to deter its adversaries, like all other advanced militaries worldwide. In a latest development, for instance, Chinese submarines were observed at a strategic location in the Yellow Sea.
A set of new satellite images posted on Google Maps last week showed at least six nuclear-powered submarines at the ‘First Submarine Base’ on the Yellow Sea.
The strategic location of this base provides China with quick access to important seas, including the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. The fleet of submarines visible in the photos reportedly consisted of two Type 091 submarines, two Type 093A submarines, and one unidentified ship.
While Beijing is relentlessly working to bolster its underwater fighting capacity, its submarine force has been involved in multiple accidents that serve as a reminder of the precariousness associated with these underwater war machines.
For instance, China’s newest Zhou-class nuclear-powered submarine, which was under construction in Wuhan, sank pier side last year in a massive setback to the PLAN. Some US officials revealed that the attack submarine being built at the Wuchang shipyard near Wuhan was the inaugural vessel of the new Zhou-class.
Earlier, reports noted that a Chinese submarine allegedly crashed during its passage through the Taiwan Strait in August 2023.
China denied these reports. However, a report by UK intelligence quoted later by the Daily Mail said the Chinese submarine hit a “chain and anchor” trap intended to snare Western vessels lurking off China’s Shandong province. As many as 55 Chinese crew were feared dead in the accident.
However, the mother of all Chinese submarine tragedies happened about 22 years ago, with the Ming-class 361 submarine.
What Happened With Ming-Class 361?
In April 2003, the PLA Navy suffered what came to be known as its biggest peacetime military tragedy in Communist China’s history.
On April 25 that year, a periscope floating idly above the water’s surface caught the attention of a Chinese fishing boat’s crew on China’s northeast coast. Wasting no time, the Chinese fishermen alerted the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which immediately responded.
Two ships were dispatched by PLAN to investigate the matter. Initially, the PLAN officials thought it was an intruding submarine from the Japanese or the South Korean navies.
However, when the Chinese officials recovered the seemingly abandoned object, they discovered it was their own diesel-electric submarine —the Ming-class 361 — which had not been heard from in days. According to reports from the time, the Chinese officials and troops boarded the submarine on April 26, only to find that all 70 crew members onboard the submarine had perished.
Since China is not particularly known for its penchant for transparency, the accident remained hidden for the next few days. It was only in early May that the former president Jiang Zemin acknowledged the tragedy and attributed it to a mechanical failure.
The catastrophic accident occurred when the vessel was conducting military drills in the Yellow Sea. According to some accounts, the submarine was deployed in the Bohai Sea, located in the Yellow Sea Gulf, east of Beijing and Tianjin.
Days before the fateful accident, on April 16, the submarine was practicing silent runs off the island of Changshang on its way back to a base in Weihai, Shandong Province.
The PLAN had not heard from the submarine in days because the sub was maintaining radio silence as part of the military manoeuvres. It was due to the silent, no-contact exercise that the PLAN took ten days to even find out about the submarine that had been drifting after the accident.
While the submarine was towed to an unidentified port in the aftermath of the incident, questions over the accident remained, paving the way for different theories to emerge. The most widely accepted theory was that there was overcrowding on the submarine.
Following the incident, military analysts noted that the Ming-class submarine could accommodate up to 57 personnel at a time. This means that with 70 personnel on board, the submarine would have been fully packed, leaving the crew feeling suffocated.
There were conjectures that the submarine was probably not on a regular mission due to the presence of additional troops and a senior naval officer, Commodore Cheng Fuming. Some analysts, as noted by Sébastien Roblin in an article for the National Interest, conjectured that the extra crew members could have been observing trials of an experimental Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system.
Another popular theory that captured the imagination back in the day was that the submarine’s diesel engine suffocated the crew. Military analysts hypothesized that a toxic gas leak—possibly carbon monoxide from the diesel engines—may have killed the crew.
Notably, a typical diesel-electric submarine charges its batteries for underwater propulsion using an air-breathing diesel engine. Although this is typically done when surfaced, a submarine trying to avoid detection may alternatively travel just below the surface while sipping air with a snorkel. If the water level rises too high, the snorkel is made to shut down automatically.
A Hong Kong-based publication, Wen Wei Po, surmised that the Ming-class 361 was likely running its diesel while snorkeling. At this moment, the air intake valve likely closed due to excessive water, or it may have malfunctioned and failed to open properly.
However, tragedy struck when the diesel engine did not shut down in response, as it should have. In under two minutes, the motor likely used up the majority of the submarine’s air supply. It’s possible that the crew experienced dizziness and dyspnea in the first minute and started to lose consciousness in the second.
Some others surmised that the submarine could have suffered a collision or an explosion.
China never gave specific details about how the submarine and the crew were recovered. However, the incident eventually led to the dismissal from the service of the PLA Navy’s Commander Shi Yunsheng and Political Commissar Yang Huaiqing.
The incident remains one of the biggest peacetime tragedies in the annals of the PLA Navy.
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