Chairman Xi Jinping urges the People’s Liberation Army ( PLA ) to prepare for war with a very serious message. The development of a brand-new command intricate to protect personnel from bombardment and the hardening of military air bases demonstrate this preparations actually and clearly.
A brand-new control complex is now being constructed about 25 to 30 kilometers west of Beijing, the capital city’s capital city, but satellite imagery shows that PLA facilities are being fortified by numerous projects.
The PLA’s large service, which is thought to serve as a command-and-control center during wartime, was revealed in the Financial Times in later January. The blog covers about 1, 500 acres, and is ten times larger than the Pentagon.
Deep holes drilled into the earth by satellite imagery, which will eventually contain bunkers that are possibly strong enough to withstand nuclear attacks. When completed, it will be the world’s largest martial control center. Now, some observers have dubbed it Beijing Military City, and more than 100 crane are at work it daily.
The building site measures about 4 kilometers across, so spreading the center out over a wider area and digging deep into the ground helps make for better survival when attacked. Although it’s currently impossible to verify every detail about the new advanced, it does appear that there are several underground nodes connected via underground passageways, and perhaps even that the city has its own subway system.
Had analysts be mistaken, nevertheless, and the whole region be nothing more than a personal blog? Given the lack of large, fresh residential real estate construction sites, the site truly stands out as a result of China’s strong economic slump.
Importantly, there is no marketing or commercial activity associated with any recent developments in this particular neighborhood close to Beijing. However, the Chinese online is silent on what is happening at this site, and all this is information that a top-secret job is being built on behalf of the defense.
Public access is prohibited all over the enormous building site, with gates making sure no interlopers may gain admittance. There are no military guards it. Both drones and photos are prohibited, and near walking and holiday destinations are now off limitations.
In the same area of Qinglonghu, homes were also being bulldozed to make room for this innovative advancement. Construction at the sprawling site began in mid-2024, with the coordinates 39°49’7.65″ N 116° 3’58.22″ E marking its approximate midpoint.
Given that the Chinese Communist Party goes all out to commemorate the PLA’s 100th celebration in 2027, like a large-scale efforts shouldn’t come as a surprise. By that time, Xi wants to be able to invade Taiwan. Actually, Xi has ordered the Army to “accelerate the integrated development of automation, informatization and intelligentization, while boosting the rate of development in military ideas, organizations, personnel and weapons and equipment”.
At the time of reading, China’s Foreign Ministry had failed to make any comment on the living or function of the new design. China was” committed to the way of peaceful growth and a protection plan that is protective in nature,” the Chinese Embassy in Washington had told the Financial Times.
The largest underground fortress in China, also known as the Joint Combat Command Center, was constructed decades ago during the Cold War, and the main secure headquarters for the PLA and for the top body under the leadership of Xi, the Central Military Commission ( CMC), located in the Western Hills of Beijing at the approximate coordinates 40°0’39.27″ N 116°14’10″E.
It appears that the new complex may take over the place of Western Hills at this time because it will undoubtedly be more shielded from British weapons like “bunker buster” explosives and even nuclear weapons.
weapons.
Modern electric and communication devices will be a significant update at the new page from the beginning. This complex thus looks to be a kind of “doomsday bunker” for China. Lack of cohesion has always been the PLA’s main weakness, but a command center like this would take over control of all aspects of its activities, especially the deployment of combat forces during wartime.
In its expose of the new underground facility near Beijing, the Financial Times quoted Dennis Wilder, former head of China analysis for the CIA, as saying,” If confirmed, this new advanced underground command bunker for the military leadership, including President Xi as the Chairman of the CMC, signals Beijing’s intent to build not only a world-class conventional force but also an advanced nuclear warfighting capability”.
In fact, Xi is expanding the capability of the PLA Rocket Force ( PLARF ) at an unprecedented clip. China now has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads, but by 2030 the PLARF will have a predicted 1, 000 nuclear warheads, and with even more to come after that. The PLA also has the world’s leading arsenal of hypersonic missiles, and it possesses approximately 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles ( ICBM ) that can reach the US mainland.
The Pentagon’s report,” Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2024″, was published last December. It confirmed three brand-new missile silo fields deep inside China with 320 ICBM silos, plus China is likely to increase the number of DF-5 liquid-propelled ICBMs to 50 silos. The US expects the DF-41 ICBM to be deployed in silos and on railways, in addition to known road- mobile launchers.
Furthermore, China is nowadays keeping some nuclear forces on heightened alert for an early-warning counterstrike posture, what Washington calls “launch on warning”. As part of China’s bold and unexplained expansion of nuclear weapons, it appears the nation is also developing a large laser-ignited fusion research center in Mianyang, a town in Sichuan Province.
This sophisticated research facility will aid in nuclear weapons design and clean energy generation research. Satellite images reveal the existence of four newly constructed and nearby arms that house laser bays and a central experimental bay likely containing a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes. With such a facility, high-powered lasers compress and heat fuel in order to achieve nuclear fusion, without resorting to actual nuclear detonations.
The facility is located at the coordinates 31°32’41.60″ N 104°44’27.48″E. It resembles the USA’s National Ignition Facility, but is approximately 50 % bigger. Such subcritical and laser-induced fusion experiments are necessary to maintain secure and trustworthy nuclear arsenals.
Decker Eveleth, a researcher at the US-based research organization CNA Corp, commented,” A couple of thoughts: first, you could argue that this construction effort is good as it indicates that China is not planning on relying on future nuclear weapons tests. This facility strengthens the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Treaty.
Nonetheless, Eveleth added,” On the other hand, such a facility will potentially allow China to develop and field new and more sophisticated nuclear weapon designs, including more miniaturized warheads. That has some implications for the future of China’s posture, if they choose to go down that road”.
Moving on to other Chinese military installations, the PLA has been busy constructing toughened shelters across numerous air bases to protect aircraft and equipment. Studying this issue, the Hudson Institute published a report entitled” Concrete Sky: Air Base Hardening in the Western Pacific” last month.
The authors, Thomas H. Shugart and Timothy A. Walton, noted that US “airfields face a threat of severe Chinese military attack. PLA strike forces of aircraft, ground-based missile launchers, surface and subsurface vessels, and special forces can attack US aircraft and their supporting systems at airfields globally, including in the continental United States”.
The majority of US aircraft losses would likely occur on the ground at airfields ( and the losses could be catastrophic ) in the event of a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific, according to them.
Furthermore, they lamented that” the US military has devoted relatively little attention, and few resources, to countering these threats compared to developing modern aircraft”. Shugart and Walton continued,” The People’s Republic of China ( PRC ) expects airfields to come under heavy attack in a potential conflict, and has made major investments to defend, expand and fortify them.
China has made a nationwide and systematic effort to increase the resilience of its air bases over the past ten years. China now has more than 3, 000 total aircraft shelters, not including civil or commercial airfields, thanks to the PLA’s more than doubled number of hardened aircraft shelters ( HAS ) and unhardened individual aircraft shelters ( IAS ) at military airfields.
In around 2010, the PLA had approximately 370 HASs, but that number now exceeds 800. Non-hardened shelters have also more than doubled, from 1, 100 to 2, 300+.
Most of these improvements have been at bases near China’s borders, particularly in the east, south and west. The vast majority of Chinese combat aircraft can be hid in a number of hardened shelters, which is sufficient. Not only that, but,” China has also added 20 runways and more than 40 runway-length taxiways, and increased its ramp area nationwide by almost 75 %”. China now has 134 air bases within 1, 000nm of the Taiwan Strait that contain more than 650 HASs and almost 2, 000 non-hardened IASs.
By comparison, the USA has added just two HASs, 41 IASs, one runway, one taxiway and 17 % more ramp area in an area within 1, 000nm of Taiwan, excluding facilities in South Korea. The American military currently has access to just one-third of China’s military airfield capacity within Taiwan’s 1, 000nm of the country.
Therefore, according to the Hudson Institute report,” Overall, this causes an imbalance where PLA forces would need far fewer” shots” to suppress or destroy US, allied, and partner airfields than the reverse.
This imbalance ranges from approximately 25 % if the US employed military airfields in Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan, to as great as 88 % if it employed only military airfields in Japan.
Operationally, this could make air operations in a conflict significantly easier to sustain for the PRC than for the United States, strategically, this destabilizing asymmetry risks incentivizing the PRC to exercise a first-mover advantage. China might start a conflict if it sees an opportunity to put an end to the air force that is attacking.
The authors made two very specific warnings. First, the PRC has made significant investments to defend, expand, and fortify its airfields and has made clear expectations that they will face heavy attack in a potential conflict. Second, the US’ investments have been much less extensive and in line with the significant threat environment US forces face.
If Xi decides to attack Taiwan, he will need and seek air dominance by using a surprise attack to paralyze the enemy’s air forces while they are still on the ground. With significant investment in long-range strike aircraft like the H-6K capable of carrying cruise missiles, as well as building up a large stock of ballistic missiles capable of attacking airfields in countries like Japan and the Philippines, the PLA has been developing this capability. The PLARF possesses an estimated 1, 300 medium-range ballistic missiles plus 500 intermediate-range ballistic missiles that could reach Guam.
Without a doubt, China has the ability to place the United States under serious threat of bombardment. These actions are in line with PLA expectations that US or other forces will attack the PRC from a number of azimuths in a conflict involving Taiwan, or in other circumstances, according to the Hudson Institute report. In theory, more efficient airfields close to China’s borders would improve its ability to generate aircraft to guard its airspace and to sustain offensive strike operations in attack.
Some of its airfields have also been hardened and expanded further within its borders, where the expected expansion has occurred.
enemy attack density will be lower, which will allow for heavier aircraft maintenance and maintenance. Additionally, the PLA has expanded the ability of airfield reconstitution to repair damage following an attack, including enlisting private contractors.
The signs are worrying. In order to fight off a foe like the USA, the PLA is digging underground and building hardening facilities above ground. China appears to be” committed to the path of peaceful development,” but it certainly doesn’t seem like it.
