WASHINGTON—China’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank in the spring, a major setback for one of the country’s priority weapons programs, U.S. officials said.
The episode, which Chinese authorities scrambled to cover up and hasn’t previously been disclosed, occurred at a shipyard near Wuhan in late May or early June.
It comes as China has been pushing to expand its navy, including its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.
The Pentagon has cast China as its principal long-term “pacing challenge,” and U.S. officials say that Beijing has been using political and military pressure to try to coerce Taiwan, a separately governed island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.
China says its goal in building a world-class military is to deter aggression and safeguard its overseas interests. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. doesn’t know if the sub was carrying nuclear fuel at the time it sank, but experts outside the U.S. government said that was likely.
Undersea technology has long been an area of U.S. advantage, but China has been pushing hard to narrow the gap.
China has been moving to diversify the production of nuclear-powered submarines. Production has been centered in the northeastern city of Huludao, but China is now moving to manufacture nuclear-powered attack submarines at the Wuchang Shipyard near Wuhan.
Beijing had 48 diesel-powered attack subs and six nuclear-powered attack subs at the end of 2022, according to a Pentagon report issued last year on China’s military power,