China's New Submarines Caught U.S. Intelligence Off Guard

September 21, 2004
World Tribune

hina is building a new deep-water submarine port at Qingdao, Shandong Province, along the northern coast, according to the Chinese newspaper Qingdao Zaobao.

China surprised U.S. intelligence several months ago by showcasing a new class of attack submarines at the Wuhan shipyard. The submarine has been dubbed the Yuan-class submarine.

The disclosure highlighted a failure of U.S. intelligence, which until that time believed that it had adequately monitored China's naval buildup.

www.worldtribune.com...

The Yuan-class subs and implications of intelligence failures are covered in this thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

please follow up in that discussion if there are any new developments.