Chinese submarine disaster mystery deepens

News Snapshot:

The murky world of covert submarine operations has again been highlighted with unsubstantiated reports of 55 deaths of a Chinese crew. But not all may be as it seems. Rumours began circulating on August 21 after anti-Chinese Communist Party activist social media account “Lude Media” posted a claim that Chairman Xi Jinping had received a briefing that all officers, crew and students undergoing training aboard a Type 093 (Shang class) nuclear-powered attack submarine had died “while performing a mission in the Taiwan Strait”. After Taiwan’s defence ministry rejected reports of an accident off its shores, “Lude Media” and its affiliated...