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. 

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.

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.

Chinese military unit said to resume cyber spying

The clandestine army unit, known as Unit 61398, “went quiet for a while — they changed the nature of their activities, they removed some of the tools that they had been using inside of different companies,” said Richard Bejtlich of Mandiant, which specializes in defending companies from cyber attacks and purging malware from computer networks that have been breached.

India To Add Navy Bases, Expand Coastline Security Sensors

In reaction to China’s long-planned ‘string of pearls‘ containment of India:

NEW DELHI — Addressing the top commanders of the Indian Navy on Tuesday, Defence Minister A.K. Antony announced that additional naval bases and air stations are required to extend the Navy’s reach.

“Antony said the construction of additional bases and naval air stations in Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep & Minicoy Islands is necessary to further extend our operational reach,” said a Defence Ministry statement.

Okinawa doesn’t belong to Japan, says hawkish PLA general

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  “The Ryukyus do not belong to Japan,” said Major General Luo Yuan. Photo: Simon Song

A hawkish Chinese general has possibly opened a Pandora’s box on territorial disputes in East Asia by saying that the Ryukyu Islands including Okinawa do not belong to Japan.

Luo Yuan, a People’s Liberation Army two-star general, has said that Japan could not rightfully claim sovereignty over the islands, because they had started paying tribute to China half a millenium before they had done so to Japan. 

China’s military buildup shows “no signs of slowing,” says Pentagon

It’s déjà vu all over again for the Pentagon’s latest annual “China power report” released on Monday, in which Defense Department policy bosses have determined that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is continuing to expand, modernize, and buy more and weaponry and capabilities mostly designed to keep outside powers like the United States out of its immediate territory. 

“China’s military buildup shows no signs of slowing,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense David Helvey, at the Pentagon. 

What worries Helvey most is that despite increased transparency from China, the United States feels that Beijing continues to keep its plans and intentions for the PLA far too close to the vest and “many uncertainties remain” about the PLA budget.

A Ring of Fire Around China (II)

BERLIN/BEIJING (Own report) – Berlin’s main think tank for military policy has announced “war game exercises” for military confrontations with China. This year’s “Trier China-Dialogue,” to be convened in Berlin at the beginning of June by the Federal College for Security Studies, will focus on analyzing the “combat capabilities” of the Chinese armed forces. The forum will be concluded with two “hypothetical practical tests,” to learn whether the Peoples Republic of China’s military can “take over” and “hold onto” Taiwan or islands in the South China Sea. The conflict with Taiwan, as well as that over various islands in the South China Sea, impinges upon China’s vital interests. In both cases, the USA has adopted the position of China’s adversary as its own, therefore, in the case of armed conflict, NATO – and therefore, the rest of the West – could become directly involved. A supplementary objective for the “war game exercises” is the West’s rapidly expanding military presence in east and Southeast Asia. In the wake of the stationing of US troops, Germany is also strengthening its military cooperation with China’s potential adversaries in Southeast Asia and intensifying arms exports into the region.

China’s Fighting Power

The Federal College for Security Studies (BAKS) has announced its next “Trier China-Dialogue” to be held June 6. This will be the third time – following 2009 and 2011. The name is derived from cooperation between BAKS and the former junior political science professor at the University of Trier, Martin Wagener, who, last October, has transferred to the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences in Munich. Wagener is considered an East Asia specialist and will participate also this year in the symposium, which is co-parented by the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Trier University’s Political Science Alumni Association. The theme of the symposium is: “Fighting Power: How Capable is China’s Armed Forces?”

The Day the Dollar Dies

Twenty-one men representing China’s most powerful institutions file into a conference room atop the icc Tower looming over Victoria Harbor. The Politburo Standing Committee has mustered the ceos of China’s four largest banks, Sinopec, and several other state-owned multinationals, plus officers from the Central Military Commission and a pair of academics from China’s top technology universities.

The general secretary formally opens the meeting. “As you know, the United States of America continues to manipulate its currency,” he begins. “It is devaluing its dollar, which steals away trade and reduces the value of its debts. The Standing Committee manages the yuan’s value to protect our manufacturing base and support employment.”

The secretary leans back ever so slightly to say what everyone in the room already knows, and the reason why they are here. “Three days ago, the Federal Reserve System announced its sixth quantitative easing policy in the past seven years.”

And now, the marching orders.

China’s Anti-Carrier Missile Now Opposite Taiwan, Flynn Says

The Chinese military has deployed its new anti-ship ballistic missile along its southern coast facing Taiwan, the Pentagon’s top military intelligence officer said today.

The missile, designated the DF-21D, is one of a “growing number of conventionally armed” new weapons China is deploying to the region, adding to more than 1,200 short-range missiles opposite the island democracy, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the Defense Intelligence Agency director, said in a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Flynn’s reference to the DF-21D follows one made by U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, in congressional testimony on April 9. He highlighted the “initial deployment of a new anti-ship missile that we believe is designed to target U.S. aircraft carriers.”

Flynn’s brief reference to the DF-21D today is significant because it advances the DIA’s assessment last year, when U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, then the agency’s director, said China’s military is “probably preparing to deploy” the weapon.

Inside China: Xi promotes ‘military dream’

Chinese PresidentXi Jinping paid a special visit April 9 to a submarine and destroyer base at Sanya in the southern maritime province of Hainan in what is viewed as a major boost to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy’s morale and ambition.

“I want you all to combine your personal ideals with the ‘dream to strengthen the military,’” Mr. Xi told PLA navy personnel, using one of his dream-inspired catchphrases such as “the Chinese dream” and “the dream to revive the Chinese nation.”

China recently began a warship-building surge. At the Sanya base, Mr. Xi rode an open-top jeep and inspected 11 new warships anchored at the port, most of them Type 054A destroyers equipped with China’s best anti-submarine sensors and weapons.

Intel on presence of Chinese subs in Indian Ocean makes waves

A leaked Indian government document indicated that Chinese submarines have ventured into the Indian Ocean region frequently and have posed “a grave danger to India’s security interest.”

The document, originated from the Indian Defense Ministry, is called “Indian Navy: Perceived Threats to Subsurface Deterrent Capability and Preparedness,” and was obtained by the newspaper Hindustan Times.