U.S. military satellites in crisis as foreign weapons advance and proliferate

(Associated Press/File)

 

The U.S. military’s satellite communications are facing a crisis, threatened by a growing array of foreign weapons, including cyberattack capabilities, lasers, electronic jammers and anti-satellite weapons, according to a Pentagon study.

An executive summary of the report by the Defense Science Board warns that military satellite communications used for global operations “will be contested by a myriad of effects ranging from reversible to destructive.”

“The estimated and projected electronic threats against satellite communication (satcom) have rapidly escalated in the last few years and will continue to increase in the foreseeable future,” the report says.

Chinese Air Force announces ‘regular’ exercises flying through key entryway into western Pacific

A Chinese H-6K bomber patrols islands and reefs in the South China Sea in this undated photo. | XINHUA NEWS AGENCY / AP

 

China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force has announced that it will be organizing “regular” exercises that fly past the so-called first island chain — a key entryway into the western Pacific that includes Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan.

In the latest exercise, air force spokesman Shen Jinke said China had sent a fleet of aircraft that included H-6K bombers, Su-30 fighters and air tankers over the Bashi Strait and into the western Pacific for a “routine” combat simulation drill Monday, state media reported.

Beijing’s covert radio network airs China-friendly news across Washington, and the world

 

 

Part 3: The Chinese government controls much of the content broadcast on a station that is blanketing the U.S. capital with pro-Beijing programming. WCRW is part of an expanding global web of 33 stations in which China’s involvement is obscured.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON – In August, foreign ministers from 10 nations blasted China for building artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea. As media around the world covered the diplomatic clash, a radio station that serves the most powerful city in America had a distinctive take on the news.

Located outside Washington, D.C., WCRW radio made no mention of China’s provocative island project. Instead, an analyst explained that tensions in the region were due to unnamed “external forces” trying “to insert themselves into this part of the world using false claims.”

Behind WCRW’s coverage is a fact that’s never broadcast: The Chinese government controls much of what airs on the station, which can be heard on Capitol Hill and at the White House.

‘France, Germany, Italy to join China-led development bank’: report

We’re watching America being abandoned by a German-led Europe in real time.

 

European officials tell the Financial Times their countries will join the institution, ignoring reservations expressed by the United States about how the new lender will be run

…

France, Germany and Italy have agreed to follow Britain’s lead and join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a major setback for Washington, the Financial Times reported.

The state-run Xinhua news agency in China said South Korea, Switzerland and Luxembourg were also considering joining.

Xi Jinping Urges Faster Development of New Weapons Systems

One has to wonder with the portion (90%-plus) of rare earths they control throughout the world, if they’re able to produce thousands of advanced planes, nuclear weapon equipped submarines and such and store them for a future purpose in the vast ‘Great Underground Wall of China” tunnel network that is thousands of square miles large. As indicated here, Xi Jinping has stated they are “at a key point for rapid development.”

 

Beijing:  Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged faster development of advanced new military equipment to help build a strong army, state media reported, as the country steps up an ambitious modernisation plan that has rattled nerves across the region.

Speaking at a two-day conference of the People’s Liberation Army, Xi said that military reforms should be “guided by the objective of building a strong army”, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday.

“Advanced weaponry is the embodiment of a modern army and a crucial support for national security and rejuvenation,” it cited Xi as saying.

China builds military airstrip on disputed island

The newly built facility stretches across Woody Island, part of the Paracel chain, China’s Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday.

The Paracels are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, and tensions between Beijing and Hanoi rose this year over Chinese construction and oil exploration there.

The runway is Beijing’s latest physical assertion of control in the area, two years after it declared a city named Sansha centered on Woody Island — known as Yongxing in Chinese — to administer vast swathes of the South China Sea.

Beijing tests anti-satellite missile: Voice of Russia

China has taken another step towards challenging US supremacy in the space race after successfully testing a “non-destructive” anti-satellite missile on July 23, reports the Chinese-language website of the Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service.

According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, the country’s Ministry of National Defense announced a successful missile intercept test that “achieved the preset goal,” which sources from the US State Department confirmed with “high confidence” was an anti-satellite missile that aims to destroy targets through impact and does not cause an explosion.

PLA holds 3-month long exercises

The People’s Liberation Army launched large-scale exercises that will last for three months and involve multiple branches and military regions on Friday, reports our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily.

The move is a response to the joint military exercise held by the United States, India and Japan off Japan’s southern coast from July 25 to 30, according to Agence France-Presse.

Replace dollar with super currency: economist

The World Bank’s former chief economist wants to replace the US dollar with a single global super-currency, saying it will create a more stable global financial system.

“The dominance of the greenback is the root cause of global financial and economic crises,” Justin Yifu Lin told Bruegel, a Brussels-based policy-research think tank. “The solution to this is to replace the national currency with a global currency.”

Why is China entering a nuclear security pact with Ukraine?

Xinhua News Agency on Dec. 10 reported that China and Ukraine on Dec. 5 signed a cooperative agreement which included this article: China, according to the UN Security Council Resolution 984 and the Chinese government statement on providing security guarantees to Ukraine on Dec. 4, 1994, promises unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear Ukraine, and to provide security guarantees to Ukraine if Ukraine is attacked by nuclear weapons or threatened by such aggression.

Clearly, this is a guarantee for strategic alliance and an unusual nuclear protection umbrella. Ukraine is far from China and in no way affects the latter’s national security. What ,then, is the need for such an agreement?

Chinese troops will have boots on the ground in Hawaii on Tuesday

Members of the PLA who will be learning weak spots and crisis procedure during a time of emergency apparently don’t throw up red flags for U.S. intelligence agencies or the military.

A previous article on this can be found here:

Iowa utilities joining drill simulating knockout blow to nation’s power grid

Aloha Hawaiians!  If you see what you think are soldiers from the Communist Peoples Republic of China Army wandering about in your neck of the woods Tuesday through Thursday next week, your imagination is not playing tricks on you.

For the first time in history the U.S. Army will host the Communist Peoples Republic of China’s Army on American soil Nov. 12-14, 2013.

But don’t worry while Chinese soldiers will have boots on the ground in Hawaii, they are only really “simulating”.

Renminbi rising: China’s ‘de-Americanized world’ taking shape?

China’s leadership will soon usher in bold reforms to support a domestic consumption-driven economic model, and globalizing the renminbi as an alternative store of wealth to the US dollar is at the center of the strategy.

The scathing commentary published by China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency calling for a ‘de-Americanized world’ was undoubtedly music to the ears of many in the developing world. The article – published during the recent fiscal deadlock – accused Washington of abusing its superpower status by engaging in unwarranted military conflicts, engineering regime changes with impunity, and mishandling its status as the issuer of the world reserve currency by exporting risk abroad. Xinhua’s commentary also called for drastic reforms of the IMF and World Bank to reflect the growing muscle of the developing world, and most significantly, “the introduction of a new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant US dollar.” 

Chinese state media calls for ‘de-Americanised’ world after US shutdown

 

Xinhua says ‘new world order should be put in place’ where all nations can have interests respected on equal footing

While US politicians grapple with how to reopen their shuttered government and avoid a potentially disastrous default on their debt, the world should consider ‘de-Americanising’, a commentary on China’s official news agency said on Sunday.

“As US politicians of both political parties (fail to find a) viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanised world,” the commentary on state news agency Xinhua said.

Submersible taps mineral deposits in S. China sea

Jiaolong, the manned deep-sea submersible, is helping China tap a treasure of iron-manganese deposits that were first discovered in the South China Sea on Wednesday.

Tang Jialing, an oceanaut on the submersible, told Xinhua News Agency that although the exact area of the deposits was still unknown, he was sure that it was large.

China And The Biggest Territory Grab Since World War II

As with countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, Israel is not even included on the maps — even within in-flight maps aboard middle eastern airliners.

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that China’s mapping authority, Sinomaps Press, issued a new map of the country showing 80% of the South China Sea as internal Chinese water.