On July 30, 2025, a strong earthquake of magnitude 8.7 struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, with a focal depth of only 10 kilometers, triggering tsunami waves as high as 4 meters. The nuclear submarine base of Viljinsk, just 120 kilometers from the epicenter, suffered a dual impact: the power system collapsed, the dock structure was twisted and deformed, and the mooring ropes of a "Borei"-class nuclear submarine broke, posing a risk of failure to the nuclear reactor cooling system.

Although the Russian side claimed that "facilities are normal," they refused to disclose details about the submarine's condition. The U.S. took advantage of this to deploy two nuclear submarines into the Sea of Okhotsk, with Trump claiming this move was a "response to Russian provocation," but in reality, it was testing the vacuum period of Russia's strategic counterattack capability. If Russia cannot respond, it is hard to say what the next step of the United States will be.

At this time, China's CCTV publicly revealed images of the control room and missile launch control room of the Type 094 strategic nuclear submarine for the first time. One reason was to prove that this nuclear submarine is "technologically outdated and can be displayed," as China now has more advanced nuclear submarines; the other was to remind Americans that although Russia's nuclear submarines may have temporarily gone silent, China's have not.

The U.S. military estimates that there are at least four Type 094 submarines deployed in the South China Sea. If the Type 096 lurks deep in the Pacific, it can cover North American targets within 12 minutes, deterring U.S. submarines from acting against Russia. During the "Marine Cooperation-2025" joint exercise between China and Russia, PLA submarines secretly crossed the Tsugaru Strait, verifying their ability to covertly transport during wartime.

This is not the first time China has "covered up" for Russia when its nuclear deterrence failed. In 2023, the test flight of Russia's "Sarmat" intercontinental missile ended in failure due to an engine malfunction, and 48 hours later, China successfully tested the DF-41 missile. U.S. think tanks assessed this move as "offsetting the impact of Russia's failure on the strategic balance," forcing NATO to delay the deployment of "Aegis" anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe. In 2024, Ukrainian drones attacked the Engels Air Force Base, destroying two Tu-160 strategic bombers. A week later, six Chinese H-6K bombers and Russian Tu-95 bombers formed a formation crossing the Sea of Japan, filling the vacuum in Russia's air-based nuclear force. U.S. and Japanese reconnaissance aircraft tracked them all the way but did not dare to intercept.

Adding this instance, China can say that it has cleaned up for Russia once a year, and even covered all three bases of nuclear deterrence - sea, land, and air. If it weren't for China, Russia would have already been finished.

Although the Russian military still has 527 nuclear warheads on alert, Putin will never tolerate the loss of strategic autonomy; China avoids getting too deeply involved in the Russian military system to prevent NATO from "targeting China and Russia together for sanctions." However, Russia's performance is always disappointing, which forces our country to repeatedly cover for Russia for the sake of core interests and to maintain the development time window for itself.

Although I am afraid that Jingzi might live a tough life, and also afraid that Jingzi might drive a Land Cruiser, Jingzi can't be so weak.

Certainly, Russia's reliance on China is not limited to nuclear deterrence alone. In addition to nuclear deterrence, they also extremely rely on China in economic and military aspects.

Economically, the trade volume between China and Russia reached $240 billion in 2024, with 38% of Russia's oil and 90% of its military chips dependent on Chinese supply, and the proportion of RMB settlement exceeded 80%. Militarily, Russia provides miniaturized nuclear reactor technology to China in exchange for upgrading precision machine tools for the "Yasen-M" class submarines; Chinese Type 052D destroyers provide air defense protection for the Russian Pacific Fleet, compensating for the combat power gap during the maintenance period of the "Kuznetsov" aircraft carrier.

In short, apart from directly sending troops and providing weapons, China has done everything it can. However, Putin is really not worth it.

(Source of information: CCTV program "Struggle")

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7534576411709932059/

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