China building large amphibious assault ships similar to U.S. Navy’s

For the first time, a PLA Navy official has confirmed that China is building large amphibious assault ships similar to those currently operated by the U.S. Navy.

“With the amphibious assault ships in our hands, our Navy will be capable of delivering power to any nation within the three island chains in the Pacific,” Rear Adm. Yin Zhuo told the state-run CCTV on Nov. 13. The three island chains means the U.S. and Australia.

China’s Military Paper Warns US Of Armed Conflict Over Sea Dispute

“Anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road towards military confrontation and resolution through armed force,” the People’s Liberation Army newspaper said, according to a Reuters report.

Full article: China’s Military Paper Warns US Of Armed Conflict Over Sea Dispute (International Business Times)

Richard Clarke: All U.S. Electronics From China Could Be Infected

 

Well, it’s been pretty obvious for a while now that China’s been hacking into some  of America’s most important businesses and government agencies and stealing reams of data. We’ve heard countless reports about Pentagon info being stolen orabout critical data on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter being plucked from defense contractors networks — with China being the main suspect.

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Here’s what Clarke Recently told Smithsonian Magazine:

“My greatest fear,” Clarke says, “is that, rather than having a cyber-Pearl Harbor event, we will instead have this death of a thousand cuts. Where we lose our competitiveness by having all of our research and development stolen by the Chinese. And we never really see the single event that makes us do something about it. That it’s always just below our pain threshold. That company after company in the United States spends millions, hundreds of millions, in some cases billions of dollars on R&D and that information goes free to China.…After a while you can’t compete.”

But Clarke’s concerns reach beyond the cost of lost intellectual property. He foresees the loss of military power. Say there was another confrontation, such as the one in 1996 when President Clinton rushed two carrier battle fleets to the Taiwan Strait to warn China against an invasion of Taiwan. Clarke, who says there have been war games on precisely such a revived confrontation, now believes that we might be forced to give up playing such a role for fear that our carrier group defenses could be blinded and paralyzed by Chinese cyber intervention. (He cites a recent war game published in an influential military strategy journal called Orbis titled “How the U.S. Lost the Naval War of 2015.”)

Full article: Richard Clarke: All U.S. Electronics From China Could Be Infected (Defense Tech)