Chapomatic

so says this Yomiuri article:

A Chinese Navy submarine stalled apparently after a fire broke out aboard the vessel while it was submerged in the South China Sea, sources close to the Japanese and U.S. defense authorities said Monday.

As of Monday afternoon, the submarine was being towed above the water in the direction of Hainan Island. The Japanese and U.S. governments have been monitoring the vessel, and it is unknown whether there were any casualties, the sources said.

The warship in question is a Chinese Navy Ming-class diesel-powered hunter-killer submarine, the sources added.

According to the sources, the accident occurred in international waters about halfway between Taiwan and Hainan Island on Thursday, and the submarine was being towed by a Chinese vessel apparently in the direction of Yulin Naval Port on the island. It is not known whether the submarine surfaced on its own, the sources added.

Three or four Chinese warships were spotted around the site of the accident, and another Chinese submarine was detected, which suggests that an accident may have occurred during a military exercise, the sources said.

Fire in an enclosed tube is very bad. The Chinese lost an entire crew a few years back when they drew enough of a suction n the ship to remove the oxygen, so this is not the only recent tragedy we’ve seen in the Chinese submarine force.

Moral of the story? Twofold. Submariners are of a type, and I hope those guys make it back okay. The rapid expansion of the Chinese navy has had a price, and this is one of them.