China's Unconventional Naval Warfare Capabilities are Evolving
China is running simultaneous next-generation attack-submarine programs across at least two yards, with satellite imagery placing the Type 095 at the Bohai shipyard in Huludao in February 2026 and a separate unnamed vessel of roughly 120 meters surfacing at Jiangnan Shipyard near Shanghai that June. The article reports that Chinese unmanned underwater vehicles deployed under International Seabed Authority designations spent only about 6% of their time in designated zones, and that most were tied to state companies; it links such activity to seabed mapping, undersea cable networks and data collection near Guam. It further describes military-civil fusion across research vessels, cargo fleets, fishing boats and drones, and anchor dragging as a form of deep-sea sabotage associated with Russia and China.
Why it matters: The developments illustrate a gray-zone maritime strategy in which military-civil fusion and undersea infrastructure are used as coercive instruments below the threshold of open war.