Imagery based on European Space Agency Sentinel-2 satellites shows the rapid, secretive construction of a 1,500-acre military command center 20 miles southwest of Beijing in a previously residential area north of the Chongqing Reservoir in Qinglonghu.
Access to the developing facility is strictly restricted. Signs around the site state that drones and pictures are prohibited, and a checkpoint has blocked off the back of the site. Hiking the trails near the site has also been banned.
Expected to dwarf the size of the Pentagon (currently the world’s current largest office building), the massive facility with deep underground tunnels and spaces will likely serve as a wartime command center and may include hardened, nuclear-proof underground “doomsday” bunkers for Chinese officials.
Or at least one that would provide some protection against U.S. conventional bunker buster bombs, including the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).
Nuclear command and control has become a major issue for China as it is rapidly building a nuclear arsenal that could soon equal that of the U.S. in size, except be much newer. As I have previously written, U.S. defense officials estimate China’s nuclear arsenal could have as many as 1,500 deployed nuclear warheads by 2035 — rivaling the U.S. arsenal. (RELATED: China Appears To Threaten World Leaders Over ‘Appeasement’ Of Trump)
Lyle Morris, a senior fellow for foreign policy and national security at the Asia Society Policy Institute, compared these developments to the underground bunkers that Chairman Mao Zedong and other top Chinese leaders retreated to during the 1969 border conflict with the nuclear-armed Soviet Union.
Sharing his analysis on X, Morris stated, “One thing I can say with almost certainty: the deep bunkering suggests preparations for a nuclear C2 command. Given the CCP’s deep paranoia about a U.S. first strike on the Mainland, this would serve as a command and control centre for all senior CCP civilian and PLA leadership during a nuclear war or crisis. China doesn’t want to repeat what happened in 1969.”
Mathieu Duchatel, a policy analyst at the Paris-based Institut Montaigne, also weighed in on X, remarking: “The scale is astonishing, and seeing it built in Xiangshan is striking if you’ve been there. But what this reveals- that China isn’t just seeking military parity with the U.S., but superiority, and that its leadership remains vulnerable to a disarming first strike-is something we already know.”
Dennis Wilder, former CIA deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific, told the Financial Times: “If confirmed, this newly developed underground command bunker for China’s military leadership, including President Xi in his role as chairman of the Central Military Commission, underscores Beijing’s ambition to build not just a world-class conventional military force, but also an advanced nuclear warfighting capability.”
The Financial Times first reported on the construction of the 2.5-mile square site in January. Construction appears to have begun in mid-2024, but there are no official mentions of the construction site on Chinese government websites.
The Chinese embassy in Washington has said they are not aware of any details of the new command center.
A China researcher told the Financial Times that the complex had “all the hallmarks of a sensitive military facility.”
“Nearly 10 times bigger than the Pentagon, it’s fitting for Xi Jinping’s ambitions to surpass the U.S.,” the researcher said. “This fortress only serves one purpose, which is to act as a doomsday bunker for China’s increasingly sophisticated and capable military.” (RELATED: China’s Expanding Fleet Of AWACS Planes Threaten US Forces)
“The size, scale, and partially buried characteristics of the new facility suggest it will replace the Western Hills complex as the primary wartime command facility,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official said.
China’s existing Western Hills secure command center north-east of the new construction was built decades ago during the Cold War.
The construction of this massive endeavor comes as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) develops new weapons, tactics and strategies ahead of the military force’s centenary in 2027. U.S. intelligence said China’s leader Xi Jinping has also ordered the PLA to also have the capability to attack Taiwan by then.
Expect this site to be fully completed before then. And expect a big war soon after.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Just another nuke target.