China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is reportedly building a new command center in the capital, Beijing, that, upon completion, will be at least 10 times larger than the US Pentagon.
Financial Times said that the construction of the mega-sized facility, which has been widely reported in mainstream media, has raised alarm among Western intelligence agencies, which think Beijing is preparing for a large-scale or even nuclear war.
The FT report said newly-analyzed satellite images showed that the project under construction is on a 1,500-acre site 30 kilometers southwest of Beijing. The images showed at least 100 cranes operating over a five-square-kilometer area.
The report said military experts believe that the facility will include heavily fortified bunkers to protect Chinese Communist Party (CCP) top leaders if a large-scale war breaks out. It said the construction of the facility began in mid-2024.
Intelligence analysts have reportedly nicknamed the project “Beijing Military City” as it will become the world’s largest military command center once completed.
FT said its reporters had tried to get close to the construction site but were blocked by security guards. A local shopkeeper told the outlet that the site is a military area.
The report coincided with US President Donald Trump’s call for building an expansive, next-generation “Iron Dome” missile defense shield for the mainland US. The shield, which will have a much larger coverage than Israel’s, will be designed to shoot down hypersonic missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
China’s Foreign Ministry has not yet responded to the FT report and Trump’s Iron Dome program as the country celebrates the Chinese New Year from January 28 to February 4.
It is no secret, however, that China already has nuclear bunkers and underground military command centers. In 2017, China Central TV reported that the PLA’s command headquarters in Xishan in southwest Beijing is 100 meters underground. It said PLA officers have started giving commands for military exercises from there since 2013.
“Our country adopts an active defense strategy,” Qian Qihu, a Chinese military engineer, told CCTV in an interview in August 2022. “As we don’t fire the first shot, we need to protect ourselves from our enemy’s first attack, then we can fight back.”
“Our strategic weapons must be fully protected. We must be able to keep ourselves safe from any of the enemy’s attacks, including nuclear strikes,” Qian said. “As the enemy’s means of attacks continue to evolve, our defense methods also need to evolve. And we should not rely on a single defense method.”
After graduating from Harbin Engineering University in 1961, Qian was sent to the Soviet Union’s Kuybyshev Military Engineering Academy, which is now known as the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, to study military engineering and geology.
In Kuybyshev (known as Samara before 1935 and after 1991), Qian learned how the Soviet Union built a bunker for its supreme leader Joseph Stalin in 1942.
The facility, 37 meters below the ground, was aimed to be Stalin’s alternative military command headquarters. But Stalin never used it and was even a tourist site in the 1990s.
After China successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb in June 1967 with the help of the Soviet Union, Qian led China’s development of nuclear-resistant buildings.
In the 1980s, Qian led a team of researchers to design underground bunkers as the West developed massive ordnance penetrators (MOP) that could destroy targets tens of meters below the ground.
Today, the United States’ GBU-57A/B MOP can penetrate 60-meter-thick cement and as far as 200 meters underground.
Hsu Yen-chi, a researcher of the Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies, a Taipei-based think tank, told the media that the ongoing construction project in Beijing is bigger than a military school and is more like an administrative organization or a large training base than a nuclear bunker.
In fact, the PLA has already identified a nearby site to build its nuclear bunker.
In January 2018, Qin Dajun, a deputy researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the South China Morning Post that Chinese researchers found a solutional cave suitable for building a nuclear-resistant bunker.
He said the spacious limestone cave, located at the Xishan Forest Park, 20 kilometers southwest of Beijing, has a natural water source. He said the cave is 2,000 meters underground, compared with the depth of 2,200 meters of Krubera Cave in Georgia.
Qin’s comments came after North Korea defied Beijing’s warnings to test its nuclear bombs in 2017.
Some commentators said even if the CCP has the capability and a deep cave to build a nuclear bunker, it would not be wise to hide all party leaders in a single place during wartime.
Canada-based Chinese commentator Wen Zhao says on his YouTube channel that when a war breaks out, CCP leaders should hide in different places to maximize their survival chances. He says a mega-military command center will attract more military attacks from the enemy than usual.
In fact, some other observers said it’s likely that CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping will move to Xian in Shaanxi during wartime as the city is well protected by high mountains and missile systems.
In 1900, when the troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance, led by the US, France and Germany, marched into Beijing, Qing Empress Cixi fled to Xian, where she claimed to enjoy hunting, and stayed there for a year.
Yong Jian is a contributor to the Asia Times. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy and politics.
Any big establishment like that is just a big target. Everything needs to be decentralized. Before WW2, the Germans centralized their industry in or near big cities where there was plentiful labor. They realized too late that mistake, desperately trying to build bunkers and underground aircraft factories in the forests and hinterlands as the enemy closed in. Sure, the leaders might eventually be dug out or dig themselves out, but there will be nothing left to lead. Just surviving after that would mean dawn to dark physical labor, and be problematic even then. Wen Zhao is right on. The only way to survive nuclear war is to avoid it. The USA has made the same mistakes, closing many military bases and centralizing the remaining ones into large targets. We have one major ammunition factory, I believe, which could be eliminated in a single nuclear strike. Electricity and communications all run to and through major cities. Without electricity we can’t refine oil – so no fuel for either civilians or military once the limited reserves are used (a few weeks). Most crops would be contaminated and those that weren’t couldn’t be transported. The great “never-in-time” inventory system that makes corporations more prosperous will be a deathtrap for survivors.
Glory to China! I hope China uses its industrial capacity to quickly ramp up the size of its nuclear stockpile so it can deal properly with the US threat. Even if China merely gets to nuclear parity, the combination of Russia+China will enjoy a 2:1 force advantage against their mutual adversary.
Worry about your losses in Ukr. A brother nation that has humiliated the Red Army. Meanwhile China doesn’t do anything for free. The price has been paid, and it’s called Siberia.
And another question. Would you like to answer the question that the CCCP killed and murdered more people than the Nazis> And that doesn’t include the millions murdered/killed in China/Cambodia etc by the evil Communist ideology.
Do you want to know who else China pissed off?
1. Japan
Territorial Disputes: China and Japan claim the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu in China) in the East China Sea. This dispute has led to multiple confrontations between their coast guards.
2. Vietnam
South China Sea Tensions: China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea overlap with Vietnam’s territorial waters, leading to clashes, especially around the Paracel Islands.
3. Malaysia
Maritime Disputes: China’s nine-dash line claim encroaches into waters Malaysia considers its own, causing diplomatic friction.
en.wikipedia.org
4. Indonesia
Natuna Islands: While Indonesia doesn’t see itself as a claimant in the South China Sea disputes, China’s claims have touched parts of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone near the Natuna Islands, leading to tensions.
5. South Korea
THAAD Deployment: South Korea installed the U.S. THAAD missile defense system, which angered China and led to economic retaliation and a chill in relations.
6. Bhutan
Border Disputes: China’s territorial claims in regions like the Doklam Plateau have led to standoffs, notably involving Indian intervention to support Bhutan.
7. Taiwan
Sovereignty Issues: China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has increased military pressure, leading to heightened tensions.
8. Australia
Trade and Diplomacy: Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 led to trade restrictions from China, souring relations.
9. Israel: In 2021, Israel voted to condemn China’s treatment of Uyghurs at the United Nations Human Rights Council, marking a significant shift in its stance.
2:1 or is it 2:9? 🤔
I hope you don’t mind if I copy and paste. The tiddly winks can be tiresome
Oh, I forgot to mention India and the Philippines. India has more military aged men too while China’s population is getting old.
It is a decoy.