China by now has a fleet of 60 combat submarines of nuclear and diesel-electric design. Having implemented an aggressive naval arms build-up they are expected to have as many as 70 in in the very near future.
By June of 2004 a startling discovery was made that China had launched, on 31 May 2004, a new modern diesel-electric SSK, dubbed the "YUAN" class, capable of delivering underwater launched missiles. A second YUAN class has already been launched as of December 2004.
Nobody knows when the YUAN program began at the Wuhan Shipyard, an inland shipbuilding facility 400 miles from Shanghai. Under construction now is the Type 93 nuclear boomer and the Type 94 nuclear attack submarine. The rest of China's naval force is fleshed out with Russian type--and many Russian made--submarines.
Effectively, The Peoples Liberation Army Naval Forces are moving from a navy of defense to a navy of offense. Until now her submarine navy has been of the traditional coastal-defense posture. Now all that has changed. Such vessels have but one purpose for being, to assert their masters political power around the globe.
So if the objective of the Chinese People's Republic is to check American aggression, then the deployment of attack submarines makes sense. If that is their sole motivation then they see their role as one of replacing the now defunct Soviet Empire, at least from an eastern point of view.
So does Red China see the US as a direct military threat? Korea taught them that we can be, if provoked. The Soviet Union's aggressive actions after WWII certainly spoke for themselves, and no where outside of WARSAW Pact propaganda mills was American sea power ever seriously lamented.
