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Taiwan says China’s military advantage is growing
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s military advantage over Taiwan is increasing amid Beijing’s attempts to block foreign forces from intervening in a possible conflict, the island’s defense ministry said Tuesday.
The military balance between Taiwan and China has become a sensitive issue in the United States, which remains Taiwan’s major security partner despite shifting its recognition from Taipei to Beijing 32 years ago.
Bipartisan critics in Congress have accused President Barack Obama’s administration of neglecting Taiwan’s defense needs by refusing to sell it 66 relatively advanced F-16 jet fighters. They also say the administration is deliberately holding up the publication of a classified Pentagon report believed to Read more…
Why China Wants South China Sea
By Tetsuo Kotani
Beijing is interested in more than just energy and fishery resources. The area is also integral to its nuclear submarine strategy.
In an effort to underscore its importance to Asia, geostrategist Nicholas Spykman once described it as the ‘Asiatic Mediterranean.’ More recently, it has been dubbed the ‘Chinese Caribbean.’ And, just as Rome and the United States have sought control over the Mediterranean and Caribbean, China now seeks dominance over the South China Sea.
It’s clear that China’s claims and recent assertiveness have increased tensions in this key body of water. Yet while most attention has focused on Beijing’s appetite for fishery and energy resources, from a submariner’s perspective, the semi-closed sea is integral to China’s nuclear strategy. And without understanding the nuclear dimension of the South China Sea disputes, China’s maritime expansion makes little sense.
Possessing a credible sea-based nuclear deterrent is a priority for China’s military strategy. China’s single Type 092, or Xia-class, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, equipped with short-range JL-1 submarine-launched ballistic Read more…
China discloses J-10 fighter jet base to S. Korean defense chief
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) — China disclosed a J-10 fighter jet base to the visiting South Korean defense minister last week, a defense official in Seoul said Sunday, a move signaling Beijing’s intent to further strengthen bilateral defense and military exchanges.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin visited a Chinese air force training base in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, on Saturday, the last day of his three-day visit to China for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, the official said.
During his visit to the base, about 200 kilometers south of Beijing, Kim watched the takeoff and landing of a J-10 jet, a China-developed fighter with an operational radius of 1,250 km, before having lunch with Chinese military officers there.
Liang said during his dinner with Kim on Friday that the J-10 jet base has never Read more…
The World Says China Will Overtake America
In the past decade, anti-Americanism grew around the world. This was in response to concerns about the unchecked global power of the U.S., when it invaded Iraq in the face of very wide international opposition. In sharp contrast, today America is seen as on its way to losing its status as the dominant global superpower.Update of Chinese Naval and Military Buildup
Seaborne commerce is an essential part of Chinese trade. According to recent Chinese statistics published in the 2010 China’s Ocean Development Report, ocean commerce in 2008 alone represented 9.87 percent of China’s gross domestic product, with a valuation of nearly 3 trillion RMB (approximately $456 billion). Moreover, some 85 percent of its international trade moves by the sea lanes.
China became the world’s largest shipbuilder in 2010, eclipsing long-time leader Read more…
China Violating Missile Proliferation Controls, Cables State
Recently leaked U.S. diplomatic memos assert that China has flouted missile proliferation controls by selling the arms and their components to Pakistan, Iran and Syria, the Washington Times reported on Wednesday (see GSN, June 2).
A classified September 2009 State Department memo written ahead of a meeting of the 34-nation Missile Technology Control Regime repeatedly references a “lack of political will” on Beijing’s part to block Chinese firms from proliferating missile technology.
The Missile Technology Control Regime is a voluntary coalition of nations that aims to constrain the sale of missiles with traveling distances in excess of roughly 185 miles and explosive payloads weighing more than 1,100 pounds. It also works to head off the proliferation of missiles designed to carry weapons of mass destruction.
“Chinese authorities and firms fail to Read more…
Official confirms ‘carrier killer’ is being developed
GAME CHANGER:Reports claim the Dong Feng 21D anti-ship missile has a range of almost 3,000km, nearly twice as long as previously assessed by the US military
General Chen Bingde speaks during a meeting with US officials at the Bayi Building in Beijing on Monday.Photo: Reuters
People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde (陳炳德) confirmed earlier this week that China was developing the Dong Feng 21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), the first Chinese official to publicly state that the missile is in development.
His comments came as the English-language China Daily reported that the DF-21D had a range of 2,700km, well beyond assessments by the Office of Naval Intelligence last year, which put it at about 1,500km.
The missile, which is capable of hitting moving targets at sea and is seen as a potential threat to aircraft carrier battle groups, would represent a powerful deterrent to the US Navy in the Pacific.
However, Chen said the DF-21D, which can be fired from mobile Read more…
Chinese Satellites May Aid Strikes on U.S. Warships: Report
New advanced satellites could enable China to direct its ballistic missiles in striking U.S. naval vessels sailing in the region in the event of an outbreak of hostilities, Reuters reported on Monday (see GSN, Jan. 10).
(Jul. 13) - A U.S. guided missile destroyer fires an artillery round during an exercise last month in the South China Sea. China could train its ballistic missiles on nearby U.S. warships using a new generation of reconnaissance satellites, a report warns (U.S. Navy photo).
A soon-to-be-released analysis in the British Journal of Strategic Studies concludes that the fast pace of work on cutting-edge spy orbiters would give China the ability to monitor up-to-the-minute U.S. military movements and to steer its ballistic missiles in strikes on U.S. warships.
“The most immediate and strategically disquieting application (of reconnaissance satellites) is a targeting and tracking capability in support of the antiship ballistic missile, which could hit U.S. carrier groups,” according to the report.
“But China’s growing capability in space is not designed to support any single weapon; instead it is being developed as a dynamic system, applicable to other long-range platforms,” the analysis continues. “With space as the backbone, China will be Read more…
China’s military modernization in numbers
A look at the key figures that tell the tale of China’s increasing military power:
Malcolm Moore, Shanghai
* +12.6 per cent – the rise in China’s official military budget to around £56.2 billion, still a fraction of the £351 billion that the US has allocated for its core defence budget. (The UK spends £37 billion)
* £96 billion – What the US believes that China is actually spending on defence, rather than the stated figures.
* -22pc – the fall in the number of standing troops in the People’s Liberation Army as China pushes through its modernization programme. The army will shrink from 2.3 million soldiers to 1.8 million, still the largest standing Read more…
China’s ‘eye-in-the-sky’ nears par with US
China has launched reconnaissance satellites that can monitor targets up to six hours a day, a think-tanks says
China’s rapidly expanding satellite programme could alter power dynamics in Asia and reduce the US military’s scope for operations in the region, according to new research.
Chinese reconnaissance satellites can now monitor targets for up to six hours a day, the World Security Institute, a Washington think-tank, has concluded in a new report. The People’s Liberation Army, which could only manage three hours of daily coverage just 18 months ago, is now nearly on a par with the US military in its ability to monitor fixed targets, according to the findings.
“Starting from almost no live surveillance capability 10 years ago, today the PLA has likely equalled the US’s ability to observe targets from space for some real-time operations,” two of the institute’s China researchers, Eric Hagt and Matthew Durnin, write in the Journal of Strategic Studies.
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