Is “Underground Great Wall” in China a threat?

By Lee Seung-joon

The Great Wall of China was built in an effort to defend it from attacks by foreigners along its border in the past. However, scientists in the U.S. suspect that an “Underground Great Wall” may have been built to do more than act as simple defense.

In 2008, an American university professor was commissioned by the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to look into a mysterious project, the Underground Great Wall. The agency handles a variety of military research missions ranging from arms-control verification to nuclear detection.

The investigation was to verify long-held assumptions about the size and the purpose of China’s secret nuclear arsenal in underground tunnels. In 2008, the agency took an interest in the secret when an earthquake devastated Sichuan Province on May 12. After the natural disaster, the government deployed thousands of radiation specialists belonging to the Second Artillery Command of the People’s Liberation Army. What caught the attention of the agency was something else ― reports of huge quantities of shattered concrete on the hillsides of a mountain in the area.

Phillip Karber and students from Georgetown University used satellite images and historical evidence. The Chinese government has used tunneling as a military defense for nearly 2,000 years. Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist revolutionary leader, ordered the building or an “Underground Great Wall” around Beijing to protect the capital from Russian nuclear attacks. Karber noted that Mao’s project included an underground nuclear reactor, warhead storage facilities and silos for China’s ballistic nuclear missiles.

After Mao died in 1976, work intensified. Marking the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic in December, 2009, China announced that the Second Artillery Command had built a total of 3,000 miles of tunnels.

China said the tunnels were well-constructed, well-lit and well protected. The question was the number of weapons inside the structures.

The U.S. has queried estimates of the number of China’s nuclear weapons for years. The Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that China would have had 818 warheads by 1994. Recent reports in the Chinese media put the figure between 2,350 and 3,500. However, according to a report by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations a decade ago, that number may not be accurate. “China stands out as the least transparent by far of all the nuclear-weapon states.” reported the council.

Though other researchers raised many contradictions against the number of nuclear weapons China has, Karber refused to back down on his theory. "One kilometer of tunnels is approximately equal to the cost of four or five nuclear weapons and several delivery systems. Why would China devote such vast resources to building a protective network of tunnels, while devoting comparatively few to the weapons the tunnels are meant to protect?” said Karber.

The Wall Street Journal reported Karber believes that the estimated number of nuclear weapons in China is small as only delivery vehicles, mobile launchers, airplanes and submarines have been revealed by the Chinese government. He believes that there are far more if hidden weapons are counted, the paper said.