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Subject: Code Name Elephant Nose Valley - The Secret PLA HQ
Softwar    2/1/2008 8:42:15 AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/NATION04/12563013&template=nextpage China's real Pentagon A recent Pentagon report identified China's most secret underground emergency command post and military center in western Beijing code-named Elephant Nose Valley. Defense officials said the facility is part of a large military complex that's considered China's real Pentagon, but has been kept off-limits to visiting U.S. military and defense officials by Chinese military leaders for more than a decade. The complex is hardened against military attack and accessible by a two-lane underground highway used by communist and military leaders who can make the 10-mile trip from the central Beijing leadership compound called Zhongnanhai. Google Earth photos of the Western Hills area show only the Beijing Botanical Garden, the closest landmark to the Elephant Nose Valley complex. Successive secretaries of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have sought to visit the facility since the late 1990s, but have been told various lies why it cannot be seen, from claims that the facility does not have toilets appropriate for westerners to a claim that the facility was closed and its functions moved to the defense ministry. Chinese military leaders have denied granting access to the facility because they fear it could aid U.S. wartime targeting or assist intelligence gathering on China's military. Defense officials said the report containing data on Elephant Nose Valley was written by Pentagon consultant Michael Pillsbury. China's refusal to permit U.S. visits has been a key element in Pentagon complaints about China's lack of military "transparency." The report is based on Chinese military writings and interviews and stated that the Central Military Commission, the highest authority, reorganized the military's operations department in 2004 based on Chinese military visits to the Pentagon. Chinese military visitors have been permitted to visit some of the most sensitive U.S. facilities.
 
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