Chinese officials reportedly believe that British spies 'planted a bug' on one of their sailors to learn about a submarine which fell victim to one of their own traps.
55 Chinese sailors are feared to be dead after one of their nuclear submarines suffered a 'catastrophic failure' in the Yellow Sea, reports claim.
The submarine supposedly got trapped after it hit a chain and anchor set up by the Chinese Navy to trap submarines from the US and UK in the waters off Shandong Province.
A UK report into the alleged disaster indicates that the submarine hit the trap on 21 August at around 8:12am local time, with 55 people dying of hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the body) after 'a system fault on the submarine'.
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The report indicates that the fault occurred because the submarine hit the trap and the vessel's oxygen system then poisoned the crew.
Beijing has denied claims of the submarine sinking, saying the leaked report of the alleged disaster is 'completely false'.
The Royal Navy has also declined to comment on the report.
That same leaked report also claims that Beijing did not request aid for the trapped sub.
China has six Type 093 attack submarines which are armed with 553mm torpedoes and it is this type of vessel which the report claims became stuck in the trap.
The nuclear subs are designed to be quieter than previous models and entered service within the last 15 years.
According to the Daily Mail, which first reported on the leaked report that claimed the submarine had been trapped and lost 55 people, Chinese officials believe that British intelligence learned what happened to the sub with a bug placed on an Apple smartwatch.
The Mail reports that Chinese dissidents are claiming that Beijing believe UK spies bugged the smartwatch of a naval officer which led to the information leak.
They also claim that the bug recorded conversations about the submarine which is how the UK supposedly knows about an incident which would be highly embarrassing for the Chinese government.
A report into the mission claims that 22 officers, seven cadets, nine petty officers and 17 sailors perished aboard the vessel after it suffered from a fault.
The traps China have set for other nation's submarines are suspected of being behind the damage suffered by American vessel USS Connecticut.
The US sub was damaged in October 2021, with the official story being that she collided with a seamount (a large underwater land formation) in the South China Sea.
Topics: World News, China, UK News
Joe Harker