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290 articles matching the search query.
Editor’s note for June 5, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Editor’s note for May 30, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
NATO official visits Taiwan as patchwork approach to countering Beijing emerges
NATO Defense College confirmed a previously unreported meeting in Taiwan in March. It’s just one of an array of regional and global moves aimed at restraining China’s future military options.
China evacuates its citizens out of Sudan
Over 1,300 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Sudan, some by warship. The conflict between two rival local factions is raging on, but Beijing is unlikely to reprise its role as a mediator, despite its oil interests in the region.
China’s Arctic ambitions and Russian ties stoke NATO fears
Polar sea ice is melting at an unprecedented rate, potentially freeing up access to faster shipping routes and vast natural resources in the Arctic. China has its eyes on those lucrative opportunities through Russia.
Why is a Washington committee on China denying journalists access to unclassified war games?
Laurel Schwartz left Beijing to return to the U.S., partly because she missed the openness of America. So why was she barred from attending a Congressional committee event about war games in the Taiwan Strait?
China’s close ties with Russia are all about China
China and Russia lauded the strength of their military cooperation this past week. But whether or not Beijing will offer military aid to Moscow in its war on Ukraine hinges on whether it serves China’s interests.
Editor’s note for April 12, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Malaysia’s China conundrum
A trip to China by Malaysia’s new prime minister may bear a lot of economic fruit, but Kuala Lumpur will have to navigate Beijing’s growing tensions with the U.S. and shared territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
China is driving South Korea and Japan together
The leaders of the Republic of Korea and Japan will dine on home-style fried rice in Tokyo tomorrow as they try to resolve their differences and deal with a rising China and a pugnacious North Korea.
China pushes for self-sufficiency at the Two Sessions
Chinese leaders are proposing all sorts of strategies to bring Xi’s self-sufficiency drive to life, including a sweeping overhaul of key ministries.
China and Belarus pledge deeper ties
Deeper ties between two of Putin’s staunchest allies have fanned concern that some of that assistance might indirectly go to Russia.
A Chinese laser and more downed flying objects stoke security fears
Some countries have been scrutinizing their air, sea, and land spaces for traces of the Chinese military ever since “Balloon-gate.” A blinding laser aimed at a Philippines ship and the fourth downing of a flying object in the U.S. will likely fan those security fears, no matter how Beijing explains it.
Under threat from China, Taiwan moves to boost military training
Taiwan is extending its military conscription to one year amid increasing belligerence by the People’s Liberation Army over the weekend.
China is all over the 2023 Pentagon Budget
The U.S. defense budget for 2023 has been approved, and it has removed some earlier provisions that were sure to anger Beijing. But the legislation still has China firmly in its sights.
Editor’s note for December 20, 2022
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Military buildups along disputed border stoke fears of escalation between China and India
After the latest skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control, Delhi has responded to renewed Chinese activity with a military buildup and road construction on its side of the contested border.
Chinese, Russian bombers conduct joint patrols and land in each other’s territory
Bilateral military cooperation reaches new highs, although China seems to be moving ahead without Russian participation in its new domestic aircraft line.
How Xi commands the guns | Live with Lizzi Lee
Dan Mattingly, an assistant professor of political science at Yale, draws from data on the PLA’s military appointments to analyze how China picks commanding officers to counter domestic and foreign threats.
China’s third aircraft carrier is its most advanced yet
‘Fujian,’ China’s new aircraft carrier, is fitted with cutting-edge technology like electromagnetic catapults. It’s a milestone for the country’s naval forces, as Beijing pushes to modernize its military by 2035.
Taiwan Looks to Ukraine War for Ideas to Defend Against China
The war in Ukraine is “adding momentum” for Taiwan’s efforts to upgrade its national defense, the Wall Street Journal reports today, citing an “extension of Taiwan’s four-month mandatory military service for men” as one potential change under serious consideration.
AP Exclusive: US admiral says China fully militarized isles
China has fully militarized three islands in the disputed South China Sea, U.S. Indo-Pacific commander John C. Aquilino said on Sunday, arming them with “anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby.”
Australia PM Scott Morrison Says China Silent on Navy Laser Incident
China has remained tight-lipped over a big laser, after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison accused a Chinese naval vessel of “an act of intimidation” for pointing a military-grade laser at an Australian surveillance aircraft. The move comes amid fraying ties between Australia and China in recent years over issues from investment to alleged foreign interference in Australia’s politics.
China returns missing Indian teenager at disputed border
China has released the Indian teen who went missing last week in the two countries’ disputed Himalayan border. He had been captured by the PLA. “Thursday’s announcement from China came after India’s defense ministry said last week it had contacted China to request that it locate and return a 17-year-old Indian, Miram Tarom,” reports Al Jazeera.
China’s extended naval reach in western Pacific fuels Taiwan tensions
China’s navy has ramped up operations east of Taiwan: “For at least six months, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has rotated destroyers and missile corvettes through the waters east and south of the southernmost tip of the Ryukyu chain — which Tokyo calls the Nansei islands — according to officials from Taiwan, Japan and the U.S.,” the Financial Times reports. Meanwhile, a day after the U.S. and Japanese navies made a “massive show of force in the Philippine Sea,” China sent 39 planes into Taiwan’s ADIZ (air defense identification zone). Context on SupChina last October: Explaining China’s surge in warplane activity in the Taiwanese ‘air defense zone.’
WSJ News Exclusive | China Seeks First Military Base on Africa’s Atlantic Coast, U.S. Intelligence Finds
Will Bata, on Africa’s Atlantic coast, be the site of China’s next military base? China likely “intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean” in the port city in Equatorial Guinea, which “already has a Chinese-built deep-water commercial port on the Gulf of Guinea, and excellent highways link the city to Gabon and the interior of Central Africa,” the Wall Street Journal reports, citing U.S. intelligence. The Biden administration has attempted to convince the small Central African country to reject Beijing’s overtures, but “believes it will require a persistent, long-term effort to fend off a Chinese naval presence.” If built, the Bata base would be China’s second in Africa after Djibouti in 2017.
U.S. and China to Elevate Military Talks in Bid to Ease Tensions
U.S.-China arms talks could be held at a high level, Bloomberg reports, as during the virtual meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平, Xi “agreed to support such discussions between the U.S. military and top officials from the People’s Liberation Army, including the vice chairman of the country’s powerful Central Military Commission.” This would be an upgrade from a “Track II dialogue, among nongovernment defense analysts and academics,” which is what one Chinese source suggested to the Wall Street Journal, and potentially even a step up from semiofficial talks between 2004 and 2009.
Dutton raises stakes over Taiwan with talk of war
Did Australia’s defense minister vow to defend Taiwan? Peter Dutton made headlines last week when he declared it “inconceivable” that Australia would not join the U.S. in defending Taiwan if China were to use force in the Taiwan Strait. But as freelance journalist Elise Thomas noted, Dutton quickly backtracked by saying that “maybe there are circumstances where we wouldn’t take up that option, [but] I can’t conceive of those circumstances.” According to the Sydney Morning Herald, one senior Australian official described Dutton’s comments as “an analytical opinion rather than a policy decision.”
China’s nuclear build-up: ‘one of the largest shifts in geostrategic power ever’
Why is China beefing up its nuclear weapons? Top U.S. general Mark Milley told the Financial Times that China’s expansion of nuclear weapons is “one of the largest shifts in geostrategic power that the world has ever experienced.” Several experts quoted by the FT put forward the same explanation for Beijing’s buildup as nuclear policy expert Tong Zhao in the New York Times: “Beijing’s nuclear buildup is ultimately an attempt to force Washington to drop the perceived strategic assault and accept a ‘mutual vulnerability’ relationship — in which neither country would have the capability or will to threaten nuclear war without risking its own destruction.”
Signs Point to China's Third Aircraft Carrier Launching Soon
China’s third aircraft carrier to launch in three to six months? A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) suggests that “the installation of the carrier’s main external components is nearing completion.” CSIS notes that China’s two existing carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong, have less advanced aircraft launch technology, but it is “widely rumored that China has developed an electromagnetic launch system similar to the one developed for the U.S. Navy’s new Gerald R. Ford class of carriers.”
Opinion | We Spent a Year Investigating What the Chinese Army Is Buying. Here’s What We Learned.
How does China acquire and plan to use AI military technology? The Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University analyzed 350 Chinese military equipment contracts that involved artificial intelligence, and found that U.S. companies play a “critical role” in providing China with data, software, and funding that makes the technology possible. One of the report’s authors, Ryan Fedasiuk, wrote in Politico today to say that while China is using AI for “all manner of applications, including autonomous vehicles, intelligence analysis, decision support, electronic warfare and cyber operations,” he is skeptical of the “most ominous predictions about China’s efforts to fully automate warfare through ‘doomsday’-like weapons.”
Joe Biden extends investment ban on firms linked to China’s military
U.S. President Joe Biden extended a U.S. investment ban on Chinese companies linked to the Chinese military. It was first signed last November by former President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Is Getting Taiwan Ready to Fight on the Beaches
U.S. troops have been in Taiwan for 13 years, since “at least September 2008,” according to a “Foreign Policy review of Pentagon data produced by the Defense Manpower Data Center, an in-house Pentagon organization.” The amounts of troops are not disclosed, but are described by Foreign Policy as “small contingents.” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (Cài Yīngwén 蔡英文) recently commented on the public disclosure of the presence of U.S. troops in Taiwan, saying only that the amount of troops was “not as many as people thought.”
China Builds Missile Targets Shaped Like U.S. Aircraft Carrier, Destroyers in Remote Desert - USNI News
Target practice on U.S. warship mockups: According to new satellite imagery and analysis, the U.S. Naval Institute says that the “Chinese military has built targets in the shape of an American aircraft carrier and other U.S. warships in the Taklamakan desert as part of a new target range complex.”
China Expands Nuclear Weapons Arsenal to Better Compete Globally, Pentagon Says
Is China changing its nuclear weapons posture? The latest Pentagon report on Chinese military power, released yesterday, said that China is on track to have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030 — double the rate of expansion previously estimated, the Wall Street Journal notes. That number would still be a fraction of the U.S. and Russia, the Economist writes, as each nation maintains about 4,000 warheads, but the magazine says Beijing’s buildup indicates a shift in strategy: “All told, China is shifting to a ‘launch on warning’ doctrine. Rather than rely on a minimal nuclear deterrent to retaliate after an initial nuclear attack, China would henceforth fire at the first sign of an incoming nuclear strike, even before the enemy warheads have landed.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed the Pentagon’s report as “full of prejudice with a disregard of the facts.”
Aircraft designer and nuclear pioneer win China’s top science prize
China’s top science prize winners announced: Aircraft designer Gù Sòngfēn 顾诵芬 and nuclear scientist Wáng Dàzhōng 王大中 received the State Pre-eminent Science and Technology Award in Beijing, and “with it a prize of 8 million yuan ($1.25 million) each, slightly more than this year’s Nobel Prize winners will receive.” The award was also given to a Hong Kong medical team for groundbreaking liver disease research.
Taiwanese general: Beijing not solely trying to ‘provoke’ Taipei
Taiwanese and U.S. generals play down imminent risk of war: Taiwan’s top military representative in the U.S., Yu Chien-feng (余劍鋒 Yú Jiànfēng), said that Beijing is “not trying to provoke” Taipei, and cautioned against overreaction to recent ADIZ incursions, which Yu said were mainly training flights, Politico reports. Meanwhile, the top U.S. general, Mark Milley, commented yesterday on the possibility of China trying to militarily seize Taiwan: “I don’t think that it is likely in the near future — being defined as, you know, six, 12, maybe 24 months, that kind of window.”
China's Hypersonic Weapons Tests Don't Have to Be a Sputnik Moment - War on the Rocks
Was the hypersonic weapons news overhyped? “China’s recent tests with hypersonic weapons systems — and the added layer of fractional orbital bombardment systems — are not a Sputnik moment. The technology is far less dangerous than it is often portrayed,” argues Sanne Verschuren, a fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, in War on the Rocks.
India’s Missile Test Seen as Warning to China After Breakdown in Border Talks
India’s newest weapons test, of a nuclear-capable Agni-5 missile with a range of over 3,000 miles, was “seen by security experts as a warning shot to China after military talks between the two countries over a contentious border dispute broke down earlier this month,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The two countries are “digging in as winter approaches,” with thousands of troops newly deployed to the still-heavily-militarized border.
China's Xi calls for new progress in military equipment, weapons
China's President Xi Jinping called for efforts to "break new ground" in military equipment and weapons development for the People's Liberation Army, China's armed forces, according to a report from the official Xinhua media on Tuesday.
