Important Takeaways:

• Facility near Beijing, 10 times size of Pentagon, may have been under construction since mid-2024
• Satellite images of the base, about 20 miles south-west of the Chinese capital, show a 1,500-acre construction site that experts suggest could house reinforced military bunkers to protect the country’s military top brass in the case of a nuclear war.
• When complete, the facility – nicknamed “Beijing Military City” – is expected to dwarf the Pentagon, the US defense headquarters, which is known as the world’s largest office block.
• The images, obtained by the Financial Times, suggest major construction of the project began in mid-2024, as the People’s Liberation Army gears up for its centenary in 2027.
• Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has repeatedly warned that he intends to annex Taiwan by then, posing a major threat to the US, which relies on Taipei for its supply of microchips.
• A former senior US intelligence official said that the new base could act as a secure bunker for Chinese officials seeking protection from a nuclear attack.
• “China’s main secure command center is in the Western Hills, north-east of the new facility, and was built decades ago at the height of the Cold War,” the former official said. “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
• “Chinese leaders may judge that the new facility will enable greater security against US ‘bunker buster’ munitions, and even against nuclear weapons.”
• One China researcher who had viewed the images said that the site had “all the hallmarks of a sensitive military facility”, with its deep underground tunnels and reinforced concrete.
• “Nearly 10 times bigger than the Pentagon, it’s fitting for Xi Jinping’s ambitions to surpass the US,” the researcher told The FT. “This fortress only serves one purpose, which is to act as a doomsday bunker for China’s increasingly sophisticated and capable military.”
• In December, highlighting the rising threat from China, Adml Sir Tony Radakin, the Chief of the British Defense Staff, warned that the world had entered a “third nuclear age”.

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