China Space Program Ramping Up Capabilities, Pentagon Says

To ‘blind and deafen’ the enemy would be to use what the Chinese call ‘shashou jiang’, or what we’d call in English: ‘assassin’s mace‘ — something America today loves to complacently ignore.

China’s growing space prowess shows no signs of slowing, the U.S. Department of Defense said in its annual report to Congress on military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China.

The Pentagon has been carefully monitoring China’s space activities, and pointed out that last year, the country conducted a total of 18 space launches and expanded its space-based intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, navigation, meteorological and communications satellite constellations. 

Entangling the dragon in Middle-Eastern quicksands

The quicksands of the Arabian Desert are notorious for swallowing up anyone trying to control the area. Historically, that’s what happened to Turkey, Britain, France, Russia and the US. Sooner or later, all discovered that instead of dominating the Middle East, they ended up being dominated by the region’s never-ending problems.

And that may also be the fate of China, the latest power to be lured by the idea that it has to engage in Middle-Eastern diplomacy. Unless decision-makers in Beijing are thoroughly prepared for what awaits, they will also find that the region can absorb all their energies, and usually for no practical effect.

Revenge of the Bear: Russia Strikes Back in Syria

President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation has drawn a line in the sand over Syria, the government of which he is determined to protect from overthrow. Not since the end of the Cold War in 1991 has the Russian Bear asserted itself so forcefully beyond its borders in support of claims on great power status. In essence, Russia is attempting to play the role in Syria that France did in Algeria in the 1990s, of supporting the military government against rebels, many of them linked to political Islam. France and its allies prevailed, at the cost of some 150,000 dead. Can Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pull off the same sort of victory?

Even as Damascus pushes back against the rebels militarily, Putin has swung into action on the international and regional stages. The Russian government persuaded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to support an international conference aimed at a negotiated settlement. Putin upbraided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his country’s air attacks on Damascus. Moscow is sending sophisticated anti-aircraft batteries, anti-submarine missiles and other munitions to beleaguered Assad, and has just announced that 12 Russian warships will patrol the Mediterranean. The Russian actions have raised alarums [sic] in Tel Aviv and Washington, even as they have been praised in Damascus and Tehran.

Philippines boosts military to resist ‘bullies’

Country relations in Asia are getting to the boiling point in regards to China. What we’re seeing within the region is an arms race to protect itself against the communist giant, and it’s not just the Philippines. For example, Japan seems to be silently going nuclear and going on the offensive to protect its disputed territory. Within the next ten years, we could see a situation where all countries within the Asian giant’s reach become strong enough combined that China will have no choice but to go on a ‘charm offensive’ and unite the continent under its political/military/economic umbrella rather than go to war with every neighbor. Having done this, combined with the United States suiciding itself from within and becoming more unreliable as a partner each day, it will have effectively taken out America’s hegemony in the Asia Pacific without having to go to war with it. However, because that nobody has a crystal ball (that works), a war or skirmish in the future shouldn’t be dismissed.

MANILA – Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Tuesday announced a US$1.8-billion (S$2.26b) military upgrade to help defend his country’s maritime territory against “bullies”, amid an ever-worsening dispute with China.

The announcement came on the same day that the Philippines filed a protest with China over the “illegal and provocative” presence of a Chinese warship and two other vessels at a Filipino-claimed shoal in the disputed South China Sea.

Massing on the Heights — Hezbollah forces mass on Israel’s northern border

Iran and its terror proxy Hezbollah are building a military force on Israel’s northern border in the Golan Heights in order to wage “popular resistance” against the Jewish state, according to areport released Tuesday.

Military forces constituted by both Syrian and non-Syrian forces have been amassing near the Golan Heights and are waiting for an attack order, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which has collected and translated a number of Arab media reports on the matter.

Trade Policy and Economic Decline

In a book titled SELLING US OUT, J.R. Martin writes of Chinese companies “exploiting loopholes in the U.S.-China tax treaty signed by the Reagan administration in 1986.” He asks what the Founding Fathers would say about our current trade deficit, and our indebtedness to communist-ruled China. Martin asks, “What would Washington and Adams think about the corrupt and destructive power of the two major political parties in America? How would they judge today’s capitalism?”

Report: Syria aims half-ton warhead missiles at Tel Aviv

Sunday Times reports the deployment of Syria’s advanced Tishreen missile batteries, which carry 500-kilogram (1100-pound) warheads and have standing orders to fire at Tel Aviv if Israel carries out any military strike on Syrian territory.

China deploys Su-27 fighters in Tibet, can target key Indian air bases

New Delhi: China’s all-weather fighter base in Tibet is now widening its range of options in the event of a conflict with India. Intelligence intercepts and satellite monitoring has confirmed that China may have to some extent overcome Tibet’s extreme altitude and temperatures to operationalise an all-weather airfield near the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

Russia Ready to Develop Long-Range Air Defense System with Turkey

Russia is ready to develop jointly with Turkey a long-range air defense complex based on S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, state arms seller Rosoboronexport head Sergei Ladygin said on Sunday.

“Russia is ready to offer as part of the tender a joint Russian-Turkish product based on the Antey-2500 system [the export version of the S-300 system]. For example, to mount the air defense system on the Turkish chassis,” Ladygin said at the weapons exhibition in the Peruvian capital of Lima.

Rosoboronexport has also proposed that Russia and Turkey join efforts to promote this air defense system on the markets of third countries, he said.

“That is, it is possible to discuss selling the license for the production of this system in other countries of the world,” he said.

Chinese hackers who breached Google gained access to sensitive data, U.S. officials say

Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials.

The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the United States who may have been under surveillance by American law enforcement agencies.

Report: Assad preparing missile strike against Tel Aviv in case attacked again

The Syrian army is deploying advanced surface-to-surface missiles aiming at Israel in the aftermath of the alleged Israeli strikes, The Sunday Times reports.

Syria is making preparations to strike Tel Aviv in case Israel launches another attack on its territory, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

China army developing advanced robot soldiers

Those who continue to think China isn’t advanced or can’t do any harm to the U.S. need to reassess the planet they live on. Within the next five to ten years, maybe sooner, the PLA could very likely be more advanced than the U.S. Military. It would be fair to say that they’re almost on equal footing now because there’s so much we don’t know buried in their black budget and state secrets, yet keep finding out from time to time. It would be fair to also say that roughly only 20% — 40% of their secrets are revealed.

BEIJING: China is developing robots with a lot more capabilities for battle, “information acquisition, command and control, and collaborative support,” official sources said. But the official Chinese media is saying its effort is different from the manner in which military robots have been developed in the US.

“The Chinese military has its own orientation and direction, and is very different from western militaries, such as the United States Armed Forces, in developing digitalized troops,” an official military publication said.