There is a pentagonal building on a large plot of land in Washington DC that serves as the defence headquarters of the US Government. The building is called the Pentagon because of its shape. The Pentagon is the world’s second-largest office building, with about 6.5 million square feet (or 600,000 square miles) of floor space, 3.7 million square feet (or 340,000 square miles) of which are used as offices. The Eurasian Times recently reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping started constructing a Pentagon-style wartime Military Command Centre in Beijing. Once completed, it would be the largest Military Command Centre of the world!

According to US intelligence sources, the Chinese Military Command Centre, currently under construction in the western part of Beijing, is going to be at least 10 times bigger than the Pentagon! There would be nuclear attack-resistant bunkers for the Chinese political, as well as military, leaders inside this defence facility. According to sources, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China would use this huge building as a Command Centre during war. The US has already released satellite images of the Super Pentagon. After analysing those images, defence analysts have stressed that the huge building is being built 30km southwest of the Chinese capital. They have claimed that Beijing is constructing the building on approximately 1,500 acres of land! The satellite images clearly show several deep holes inside the compound where bunkers would be built in the coming months.

The Chinese Ministry of Defence reportedly started implementing this project, named Beijing’s Military City, in mid-2024. However, the Xi Jinping Administration is yet to confirm the total cost of the project. The US intelligence sources have claimed that the underground bunkers would be built on an area of 5sqkm. The Chinese engineers are using at least 100 cranes and other modern devices for constructing these bunkers.

It may be noted that the PLA is poised to celebrate its centenary in 2027. Beijing wants to complete the construction work of Super Pentagon ahead of this significant milestone for the Red Army. Defence analysts are of the opinion that the Asian Giant plans to become a Superpower in the next couple of years. Incidentally, the US has nuclear, as well as non-nuclear, bunker buster or Earth-Penetrating Weapon (EPW) that is designed to penetrate soil, rock or concrete and to destroy hardened, underground facilities. Keeping this in mind, the PLA has commissioned the construction of the special underground bunkers at the Military Command Centre. The Chinese political and military leaders would be able to monitor war from those underground bunkers during an armed conflict as the US could not blow up these bunkers.

A former US intelligence officer, on condition of anonymity, recently told the Financial Times that China could invade Taiwan in 2027! Hence, President Xi is taking each and every step quite carefully. According to the US official, Beijing believes that the US would launch a nuclear attack on China in order to save Taiwan. “China is building underground bunkers to protect itself from US nuclear attacks,” he stressed.

In January 2025, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) published a research paper, titled China 2049: A Future Analysis, mentioning that the PLA would be equipped with a large number of aircraft carriers, cruise missiles and assault amphibious vehicles in the next two decades. The centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China is expected to fall on October 1, 2049. Moscow believes that China would be able to build a world-class military force by that time.

The Chinese defence researchers are currently working on hypersonic missiles and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for military purposes. The Asian powerhouse is also increasing the number of its nuclear warheads. As per the latest data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China had an estimated 500 nuclear warheads as of January 2024. Meanwhile, the US has 5,044 nuclear warheads as of February 2025, while Russia has 5,580. The US Defence Department has assessed that China has a total of 600 nuclear warheads as of December 2024 and, if it remains on its current trajectory, Beijing may have up to 1,000 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2030. At the same time, Beijing is expanding its fleet of nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines, apart from building drone-carrying warships.

During the Cold War (1947-91), China built military headquarters at the foot of the Western Mountains, a scenic mountain area located 12km to the west of Kunming, Yunnan. The PLA has been carrying out all its activities from there for a long time. However, a new Military Command Centre has become necessary, with the Chinese Armed Forces growing in size. The US Defence Department received a report on China’s military strength on December 18, 2024. It is mentioned in that report that Beijing wants to become a military superpower.

The construction of the vast Military Command Centre in China has raised concerns in neighbouring India, too. As China often shows aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India is closely monitoring Chinese military activities.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das