CHINA is feared to be building an army of airships under the guise of tourism, experts have warned.
The giant lightweight air vessels, often referred to as blimps, were hugely popular in the first half of the 1900s before vanishing in recent decades.
But China is set to welcome the huge flying ships back to the skies, with plans in place to use the blimps as early as 2025.
One Chinese tourist airship company has already started working on sending its passengers “walking in the clouds”.
But an expert says it would be naïve to trust these airships are being constructed simply for tourist voyages.
Academic Professor Ashok Swain told The Sun: “We’d never take what China says at its face value.
“If you look at Chinese military expenditure, they do not include many other areas that are for military purposes.
“It’s a very Chinese ingenuity that has been there for a long time.
“On this one, we do not see any reason why China is not, or will not, or planning not to use it for military purposes.”
Separately, satellite images have shown hangars in northwest China housing massive airships.
Swain says it’s all part of Xi’s plan to take over the world, with the big blimps likely to be used for surveillance but also help give the Chinese army global reach.
Swain said: “I think it is more for surveillance.
“But China is also, their delivery capability, they’re expanding it.
“They do know that they have to, if they want to be a global power, they need to have the ability to send their military beyond their immediate neighbourhood.
“Though we say that China’s economy is not doing very well anymore and China won’t continue, these are not stopping Xi from making the military organised, mobile and giving the military global reach.
“If they want to be a real superpower, they have to be able to militarily reach anywhere in the world.”
Last year, a big blimp was captured on satellite imagery at a base in the country’s northwest, CNN reported.
The images were first taken in November 2022, showing a 100ft-long airship at a desert military complex.
TAIWAN insists it is an independent nation after splitting from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.
But China claims Taiwan remains a part of its territory with which it must eventually be reunified – and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island and place it under Beijing’s control.
The island, which is roughly 100 miles from the coast of south-east China, sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.
Taiwan sits in the so-called “first island chain”, which includes a list of US-friendly territories that are crucial to Washington’s foreign policy in the region.
This also puts it in an ideal situation to slow a Chinese attack on the West.
And with tensions between the two nations high, Taiwan is likely to aid China’s enemy if it means keeping its independence.
Taiwan’s economy is another factor in China’s desperation to reclaim the land.
If China takes the island, it could be freer to project power in the western Pacific and rival the US, thanks to much of the world’s electronics being made in Taiwan.
This would allow Beijing to have control over an industry that drives the global economy.
China insists that its intentions are peaceful, but President Xi Jinping has also used threats towards the small island nation.
Aerospace experts said the pictures illustrated a significant leap forward in China’s airship programme.
Swain said the bigger airships could “carry a huge number of troops from one place to another”.
He added: “The reach will be much faster, more than moving through the sea or the aircraft carriers.”
University of Buckingham’s Professor Anthony Glees added: “I think the world situation is extremely grave right now and we should be very suspicious of anything the Chinese are doing at the moment.
“I’m concerned that airships could bring in Chinese special forces as they can land anywhere.”
And it won’t just be about claiming Taiwan.
Swain says the Western world continues to underestimate Xi’s true desires by focusing too much on Taiwan – instead, the dictator is eyeing up a new world order, and the airships look poised to support that goal.
Swain said: “The Chinese plan big.
“I think this is a mobile plan China has to be the global military power.”
Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) managed to perform a successful first test flight back in March of their so-called tourist airship.
The AS700 airship dubbed “Xiangyun” was seen flying 1,600ft over the central province of Hubei for two hours.
Jamey Jacob, director of Oklahoma Aerospace Institute, told The Sun that although the aircraft are supposedly entertainment for visitors, tourism isn’t a known Chinese speciality.
He said: “While you can kind of propose that a tourism aspect might be one avenue, that’s really not what they’re good at.
“They could fall into some of the other things that China is looking at, which is the aggressive stature they have towards Taiwan.
“So there is potential that these developments can also be used for other applications down the road which aren’t necessarily being advertised.”
Airships were first seen in battle during the First World War, when the Germans flew the Zeppelin over Europe for both bombing and scouting.
AIRSHIPS were seen as the future of commercial aviation in the 1930s with them being used in the tourism industry, the military and for private travel.
But the public’s perception of the quirky transport system was forever changed on May 6, 1937, when the tragic Hindenburg disaster took place.
The Hindenburg was an 804ft airship which was involved in a horror accident in New Jersey, US, that led to the deaths of 36 people.
The vessel was filled with hydrogen and as it came into moor witnesses claim they saw gas leaking from the airship.
Moments later, a spark was reported as flames erupted along the aircraft as it all quickly became engulfed in a horror blaze.
Thirty five of the 97 onboard died in the fire with another person losing their lives on the ground.
Many of the survivors were left with severe burns.
The catastrophe was filmed with a terrifying image showing the moment the back end of the airship exploded.
In the years after the disaster the use of airships for casual travel were largely avoided.
But when the world went to war in 1939, blimps became a popular method used in WW2.
The US Navy used them alongside convoys being sent to England and the Soviet Union.
Their job was to protect the huge armadas from German forces looking to unleash havoc in U-boats.
One of the most popular airships in wartime was the Zeppelin.
However by the end of the fighting, many Zeppelins were left completely destroyed by Allied bombing with them never being rebuilt.
Manufacturers quickly realised airships were less efficient in terms of price, speed and durability compared to planes.
Leaving production of any new vessels rarely seen.
In recent decades, blimps have been more commonly used for advertising purposes.
FOUR major high street banks are closing nearly 20 branches for good next week in a blow for households.
Halifax, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and TSB are shutting 18 sites across the UK between them, according to the latest data from ATM provider LINK.
Halifax is to permanently close two branches in England while Lloyds is shuttering six across the country.
RBS is closing three branches in Scotland while TSB is closing seven locations across England, Scotland and Wales.
It comes after The Sun revealed 55 Lloyds Banking Group sites will close for good in 2025.
Meanwhile, 69 branches are set to shut just this month in towns and cities including Hounslow, Portishead and Felixstowe.
Banks and building societies have shut around 6,000 branches since 2015 — at a rate of 54 each month — to almost half the number of branches that existed a decade ago.
Since 2022, almost 1,500 branch closures have been announced, according to data from LINK.
Here is the list of bank branches closing next week, and their final opening dates:
The latest data from the British Banking Association (BBA) from 1986 to 2012 and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from 2012 to 2023 reveals that the number of bank branches in operation in the UK fell from 14,689 in 1986 to 5,745 in 2023 – a loss of 8,944.
Over the same period, the number of building society branches in operation plummeted from 6,954 to 1,925.
The loss of bank branches across high streets has been attributed to banking customers’ changing habits and the onset of online banking.
However, the mass closure of banks has led to fears those without access to computers, phones and transport, like the elderly, are being left behind.
In 2021, then chair of the House of Commons Treasury Committee, Mel Stride, wrote to several high street banks about branch closures.
In a letter response from the chief executive of Barclays UK, Matt Hammerstein said “profound technological changes” had seen the need for physical branches “experience a sustained fall”.
TSB Bank also said at the time that over 90% of its transactions were done digitally and over 67% of its customers used mobile, online or telephone banking.
Customers are being forgotten, writes The Sun’s Head of Consumer, Tara Evans.
With branches closing and online banking taking over, customers can be left feeling cut off.
We wrote about forgotten customers back in July on our Sun Money pages in our weekly newspaper section.
People like David Elkins, 82, a retired service engineer from Calne, Wilts, who saw his HSBC branch close in 2023 and had to travel ten miles to the next nearest.
He has a kidney issue and needs frequent dialysis, making it impractical.
Banking hubs are emerging as a solution to address the gaps left by widespread closures – but there are not enough of them.
There are plans for 146 of these, but so far there are only 60.
You can use one of the Post Office’s 11,635 branches to perform basic banking tasks, but they don’t allow you to open or close accounts for example.
If a recent bank or building society closure has left you without one nearby, you have some alternatives.
You can carry out most basic banking tasks at your nearest Post Office, although you won’t be able to apply for a loan or open a new bank account there.
You can find your nearest Post Office branch by using the locator tool on its website.
Some banks offer a mobile banking service – a bus that comes to your area offering services you can usually get at a physical branch.
Other banks use buildings such as village halls or libraries to offer mobile banking services.
It’s worth contacting your bank to see what services they have available, and when they might next be in your area.
If you’re thinking about giving online banking a go, comparison website Uswitch has a useful guide on all the need to knows.
You could also switch your current account to a bank or building society that has branches closer to you.
You can switch current accounts for free, in most cases, through the Current Account Switch Service (CASS).
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories