Satellite images show 'Beijing Military City,' the secretive command center China is building. It may be the world's largest.

US-China tensions over Taiwan

China's increasing military presence in the East and South China Sea — particularly in proximity to Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines — prompted the US to counter Beijing's influence in the Indo-Pacific.

As both nations vie for influence in the region, the US has been running joint military exercises with allied nations to ready their forces to operate together.

Beijing has also increased its naval and air operations in waters near Taiwan, leading US military officials to deem them not as "exercises, they are rehearsals" for a forced reunification of Taiwan with mainland China.

Taiwan has bolstered its defense measures ahead of a potential invasion from China, which claims that the self-governing democracy is part of its territory.

With numerous short-range ballistic missiles and international ballistic missiles at its disposal, China's nuclear arsenal poses as much of a threat to global adversaries as it does to its neighbors.

Before construction

The Financial Times first reported the complex's construction in January, showing satellite images of the site spanning nearly 2.5 miles.

In February 2022, the site was built in an area north of the Chongqing Reservoir that appeared to be residential, with large tracts of open land, according to satellite imagery.

Cleared out a year later

Satellite imagery taken in February 2023 showed the area largely cleared of residential buildings in preparation for major construction of the complex, which appeared to begin in mid-2024.

A covert construction project

In June 2024, the construction site hardly resembled what it looked like a little over a year earlier, with new tunnels and roadways surrounding a central block of land potentially reserved for the main complex building.

There are no official mentions of the construction site on Chinese government websites, and the Chinese embassy said they were not aware of the details of the new command center.

While there hasn't been any visible military presence at the complex, access to the facility is strictly prohibited.

Signs show that drones and pictures are not allowed near the site, and a checkpoint has blocked off the back of the site. People have also been banned from using hiking trails near the site.

World's biggest military command center

Brady Africk, the deputy director of Media Relations and Data Design at the American Enterprise Institute, posted a timelapse on X capturing the site's speedy build-up in just a year.

A former senior US intelligence official told the Financial Times that the new command center could replace China's existing military headquarters, which was built during the Cold War.

"The size, scale, and partially buried characteristics of the new facility suggest it will replace the Western Hills complex as the primary wartime command facility," the official said.

A potential 'doomsday bunker'

Aside from being the anticipated central hub of Chinese military operations, the former US official said the facility could also offer "greater security against US 'bunker buster' munitions" for Chinese officials in the event of war.

Renny Babiarz, a former imagery analyst at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, told the Financial Times that satellite images appeared to show about 100 cranes at the site constructing subterranean facilities and passageways.

With deep underground tunnels and spaces reinforced in concrete, a China researcher told the Financial Times that the complex had "all the hallmarks of a sensitive military facility."

"Nearly 10 times bigger than the Pentagon, it's fitting for Xi Jinping's ambitions to surpass the US," the researcher said. "This fortress only serves one purpose, which is to act as a doomsday bunker for China's increasingly sophisticated and capable military."

China's growing military ambitions

The new command center is the latest move that demonstrates China's advancing military ambitions. The Chinese People's Liberation Army set a goal to modernize the country's military by 2027.

As of mid-2024, the Pentagon estimated that China's Rocket Force likely had more than 600 operational nuclear warheads, and the figure is only expected to grow. Defense officials estimate China's nuclear arsenal could have as many as 1,500 deployed nuclear warheads by 2035 — roughly matching those of the US.

Senior producer Olivia Nemec and associate producer Erica Star Domena contributed to this report.