THE MOUNDS IN COMMUNIST CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: Library of Congress
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): LOC-HAK-512-1-6-5
• Release Decision: RIFLIM
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: January 11, 2017
• Document Release Date: March 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: September 10, 1970
• Content Type: MEMO

No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/03/01 : LOC-HAK-512-1-6-5
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TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
MEMORANDUM 1rOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM: Henry A. Kissinger
SUBJECT* The Mounds in Communist China
CIA has wrapped up all known information about the strange mounds
in China and has offered some thoughtful but not compelling speculation
that they are intended to serve as ground defense strongpointe The
CIA memo admits that some analysts have serious doubts about the
strongpoint hypothesis. (CIA's memo is at Tab A)
The facts are that there are now some eighteen of these unusual
structures under construction in China. None of them has been
completed although work on some was first noted in 1966. All of them
show fundamental similarities. Each is built at or near ground level
on flat. open land. Each has an interior network of interconnecting
concrete corridors and each is surrounded by a moat about 30 feet
deep and up to 200 feet wide.
A major research effort has been undertaken by the intelligence
community to figure out what purpose the mounds are intended to
serve. Intelligence specialists on China were consulted along with
others having specialiesd knowledge of scientific and technical
subjects. Experts from outside the government were brought in
from such fields as construction engineering, nuclear physics,
geology, hydraulics and military engineering and asked their opinions
as to the function of the mounds-.
the functions considered were:
INTO'l? ATION
Ground defense installations
Strategic missile launch sites
Storage for bacteriological or nuclear weapons
Personnel shelters
Command and control centers
Storage for conventional supplies
Utility plants for electric power or water supply
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
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MORI PER PAGES
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Solar pumps
..w Hospitals
Industrial plants
-- Tombs or crematoriums
By late 1968, aerial photography disclosed that weapons positions
were being added to the mounds, making it clear that they were
to have some sort of military function. This fact served to rule
out ouch possible functions as bwrial mounds, hospitals or
industrial facilities. Moreover, they appear to have only enough
electric power and other utilities for routine housekeeping purposes.
No special powerlines, auxiliary power systems or special
communications equipment have! been observed. The various engineers
and other specialists consulted ;ruled out utility plants and solar
pumps. There were also problems with most of the military uses
postulated for the mounds. The command and control center
hypothesis was vitiated by the fact that so many mounds (eight) were
grouped together in one area near the missile test center. The
same consideration made it unlikely that the mounds were intended
as personnel shelters. There are so many more convenient, more
secure and less expensive ways to construct storage facilities that
this possibility seemed unlikely also. By early 1969 available
photography had made it clear that the dimensions and configuration
of the corridors and rooms were not suitable for handling, storing
or launching strategic missiles. Nor do the mounds appear well
suited for nuclear weapons storage or servicing.
The CIA memo concludes that the most likely explanation for the
,wads is that they are ground defense strongpoints to protect
certain strategic areas from invasion. Six of the mounds in North.
China are situated at strategic rail and road junctions leading to
important military and economic centers. Three others strengthen
the defense along a traditional invasion route from the sea and the
eight mounds at the missile test center appear placed to defend
against an attack from across the Mongolian border. CIA notes,
however, the following points which argue against the strangpoint
view:
-- Concentrated artillery fire on the corridor opening* or
direct bomb bits probably would cause earth slides that could
obstruct the entrances.
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/03/01 : LOC-HAK-512-1-6-5
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-. Most of the mounds have only four to six firing post
with limited fields of fire on the side from which an attack would be
most likely.
-- The fortress concept to outmoded by modern tacti
capabilities.
They are situated in flat, open area* and could be bypassed
by an advancing force.
-- Defensive .trongpoints would contradict Mao Tsee-t o4g's
theories aloof the importance of guerrilla and highly mobile regular
force tactics.
My own view is that the mystery of the mounds has not yet been solved.
It to inconceivable to me that the Chinese would construct Pentagon mine
structures for only four to six firing positions. CIA will continu, to keep
a close watch on the** odd mounds and so will I. Perhaps as we collect
more information from our satellite photography and as we continue to
ponder these, strange shapes we will develop a lines of reasoning in which
we can all have more coaf?idence.
12E R i SI
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