Chinese Ship Caught Salvaging High Quality Steel from WWII British Wreck

Chinese salvage ship Chuan Hong was spotted off Kuantan, Malaysia, ripping up the World War II wrecks of Royal Navy warship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse for high-quality steel.

Chuan Hong was seen sitting illegally over the designated war grave of the two British ships sunk by Japanese bombers in 1941. The Chinese dredger was located by certain media outlets and maritime open-source intelligence analysts last week.

Steel, high-grade aluminium and brass fixtures used on the 35,000-tonne HMS Prince of Wales and the other ship was of exceptionally high quality and represents a quick and easy source of scrap to be smelted into new products. However, the current condition of the British wrecks remains unknown.

A formal public complaint has been issued to the Malaysian government’s National Heritage Department.

Chinese salvage ships have been caught looting war graves before

Fujian Ya Rui Marine’s salvage ship Chuan 68 has been observed operating in Malaysian waters since early 2023.

In 2017, Chuan 68 and its crew were temporarily detained amid allegations it had removed three Japanese WWII wrecks near Usukan, Malaysia. The same ship fled into international waters after it was intercepted by the Indonesian Navy in April of the same year while it was scavenging a shipwreck near the Anambas Islands.