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UPDATE: December 1, 2011; 10:00AM Amid the tensions in Iran and the destruction of a second nuclear facility (which is detailed in the original story below), we find it necessary to present our readers with an update made available via The Daily Crux and Zero Hedge, in which Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor from the Chinese National Defense University, said China “will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War.” Trillions of dollars in debt and regional energy resources are at play here. Perhaps this is the reason Iran is publicly downplaying the threat and the...

On August 14th, 1912, the United States launched its first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley. This 11,500 ton ship served during both World Wars until its luck ran out near Java in 1942 and had to be abandoned and sunk in order to avoid capture by the Japanese. Almost one hundred years later, China has just launched its first aircraft carrier and the U.S. State department is demanding to know why. "We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment," said Victoria Nuland, a State department spokeswoman. Let me give...

China has been demanding the U.S. halt all reconnaissance flights over international waters near its boarder. China’s Defense Ministry told the Global Times newspaper “We demand that the U.S. respect China’s sovereignty and security interests, and take concrete measures to boost a healthy and stable development of military relations.” The only problem is that the US surveillance flights have been operating outside of China’s sovereign territory. Tensions have increased after a pair of Chinese fighters attempted to intercept and American U-2 flying over the Taiwan Strait which is the waterway separating Taiwan from Mainland China. The U-2 was over international...

After more than a decade of renovation, China's first aircraft carrier – a remodeled 67,500-ton Admiral Kuznetsov-class Soviet carrier bought at auction in 1998 – is preparing to set to sail. The official Xinhua News Agency posted 20 high-resolution pictures with accompanying captions that suggest the carrier will undergo sea tests this year. One said: “Huge warship on the verge of setting out, fulfilling China’s 70-year aircraft carrier dreams.” Another said: “From the pictures we can see that this project is entering its final stage.” Yet, another noted that with the exception of its radar system, construction on the ship’s...

70-year dream of aircraft carrier close to reality Minnie Chan and Julian Ryall in Tokyo Apr 7, 2011 Twenty high-resolution pictures of China's first aircraft carrier, the 67,500-tonne Varyag, appeared on the Xinhua website yesterday, with captions saying the vessel was almost finished and expected to sail this year. It was the first time official state media reported on the nation's first aircraft carrier project as well as indicating its construction progress at a shipyard in Dalian , Liaoning . The Xinhua report came as Japan's National Institute for Defence Studies released its annual strategic review, which said the influence...

China's surging military space program is poised to challenge U.S. aircraft carrier operations in the Pacific, as Chinese military spacecraft already gather significant new radar, electrooptical imaging, and signal intelligence data globally. During 2010, China more than doubled its military satellite launch rate to 12. This compares with three to five military missions launched each year between 2006 and 2009. Since 2006, China has launched about 30 military related spacecraft. Its total of 15 launches in 2010 set a new record for China and for the first time equaled the U.S. flight rate for a given year. Most U.S. public...

Former U.S. Pacific Command Chief Adm. Tim Keating (ret.) reiterated what we’ve been hearing from U.S. defense officials for a while now regarding China: The question isn’t what type of military technology is the Asian giant developing, it’s what will it do with all that firepower? “We kinda have a pretty good feel for what they’re fielding” in terms of weapons, said Keating during a talk on missile defense at the Heritage Foundation here in Washington. For example, the U.S. has known about weapons like the J-20 stealth jet for a while now, according tot the former admiral. “It wasn’t...

U.S. military commanders are expressing confidence that they can hold their own in the face of faster-than-expected advances by China's military, but looming cost cuts are adding to doubts about the future of American power in the Pacific. Fueled by its booming economy, China's military growth over the past decade has exceeded most U.S. forecasts. Its plans to develop aircraft carriers, anti-satellite missiles and other advanced systems have alarmed neighbors and Washington. Critics, including within the U.S. Congress, note with apprehension that rising Chinese defense spending coincides with Washington's plans to scale back its budgets. They accuse the Pentagon of...

China recently conducted a long-range missile flight test that remains shrouded in secrecy. The Sept. 25 test highlights what China military specialists say is the growing threat posed by Beijing's development of long- and short-range ballistic and cruise missiles, and its new missile defense interceptors. A U.S. official confirmed that China's military fired a missile from the Taiyuan missile center, about 320 miles southwest of Beijing, to Korla, a city in western China some 1,800 miles away. Officials declined to provide details, saying the test data are classified. China watchers in Asia and the United States were alerted to the...

On August 9, China launched the remote sensing satellite Yaogan-10 (military designation: Jianbing) into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Situated in the northwest of Shanxi Province, the site is a space and defense launch facility reportedly used for testing the Chinese military’s intercontinental ballistic missiles and overland submarine-launched ballistic missiles (Globalsecurity.org). This event marks the sixth Chinese launch this year via the CZ-4C Chang Zheng-4C (Long March) launch vehicle and follows a surge in satellite launches that appear to reflect the Chinese determination to beef up its reconnaissance satellite network and end its dependence upon foreign satellite systems....

The United States Navy is going to steam into the Yellow Sea and blow up some Korean warships. But friendly, like, and for fun. Points will be scored, and trophies (of a sort) will be awarded. Younger people might think of it as an Xbox simulation with live ammunition. These kinds of war games in the Northern Pacific and vicinity have been going on ever since Japan lost the war and the States has taken over funding their self defense. China, upon whom some of these waters in which the games occur impinge, has grumbled about the contests before, but...

Security: The Pentagon report warning that Beijing is amassing high-tech missiles leaves out another alarming domestic security issue: massive Chinese spying. Forget about the Russian spy ring the FBI broke up that stole mostly headlines (as opposed to U.S. secrets) for their amateurish methods. This is no joke. These Chinese moles mean business. And they're stealing highly sensitive military secrets. At least 44 of them have been quietly prosecuted in the last two years alone — a figure that dwarfs the number of Russian spies expelled last month. And those are just the ones we've caught. The Chinese agents are...

China has issued regulations banning its 2.3 million soldiers from creating web sites or writing web blogs, adding to the nation's existing Internet curbs, state press said Saturday. "Soldiers cannot open blogs on the Internet no matter (whether) he or she does it in the capacity of a soldier or not," Xinhua news agency quoted Wan Long, a political commissar of the People's Liberation Army, as saying. "The Internet is complicated and we should guard against online traps," it said, citing concerns about military "confidentiality". The new rules are laid out in revised PLA Internal Administration Regulations and went into...

Recent discourse concerning the Chinese People’s Liberation Army's (PLA) modernization has principally focused on technological advances and less on the human dimension of PLA force transformation. In particular, a review of these discussions revealed the absence of a publicly available database of Chinese military leaders with the rank of full general (shangjiang). Against the backdrop of the PLA’s stated intention to reorient the armed forces as part of its modernization efforts, an analysis of promotion patterns of the 118 PLA generals (1981 - 2009) may yield important insights into the foci of PLA force transformation. PLA to Build Up Navy...

I thought that Russian military official’s slapdown of the Chinese knock off of their Su-33 carried based fighter (Chinese designation J-15) was really interesting. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, this could all just be posturing for the global arms market, a bit of tainting the competition if you will. Or, it could just be public griping over the Chinese stealing intellectual property from Russian aircraft builder Sukhoi. But then again, there is not much of a global market for carrier based fighters. Also, what the Russian official said about shortcomings in China’s aerospace industry resonates with what I’ve seen from...

China's J-15 carrier-based fighter will not be able to compete with Russia's Su-33 fighter on global markets because it is inferior to the Russian aircraft, a Russian military analyst said on Friday. China since 2001 has been developing the J-15 naval fighter, which is believed to be a clone of Russia's Su-33 Falcon-D. China bought an Su-33 prototype earlier from Ukraine, and used it to develop the new aircraft. The J-15 is expected to be stationed initially onboard the Chinese Varyag aircraft carrier currently being fitted in the port of Dalian. China bought the unfinished Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier...

Egypt's Defense Ministry has approved plans to expand the production of joint weapons and aerospace projects with Beijing. They said both countries were discussing a draft agreement in which they would also jointly market combat platforms and weapons to Arab and African militaries. "Over the next few months, we will witness an announcement of new Egyptian-Chinese combat production that stems from joint cooperation," said Hamdi Waheiba, chairman of Egypt's Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI). Waheiba said the cooperative effort would seek to meet the needs of the Egyptian Air Force as well as regional militaries. The two countries plan to...

A U.S. specialist on China's military testified recently that Beijing's development of aerospace capabilities is reaching world-class levels, and dismissed past notions of the Chinese military as a "junkyard army". “Since the beginning of the latest phase of China’s military modernization following the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, the Chinese Communist Party leadership has striven to build a world-class aerospace sector as a major element of increasing China’s comprehensive national power,” said Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center in testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “This goal has been pursued through enormous targeted investments in technology,...

New Chinese fighter jet expected by 2018: U.S. intelligence (Reuters) - China is building an advanced combat jet that may rival within eight years Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 Raptor, the premier U.S. fighter, a U.S. intelligence official said. The date cited for the expected deployment is years ahead of previous Pentagon public forecasts and may be a sign that China's rapid military buildup is topping many experts' expectations. "We're anticipating China to have a fifth-generation fighter ... operational right around 2018," Wayne Ulman of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center testified on Thursday to a congressionally mandated group that...

Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum. Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation. Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so...

As America unilaterally disarms, a Chinese officer in a new book touts a new reality — that China is prepared to rule the roost, and the U.S. better keep off the grass.

China's military buildup opposite Taiwan has continued despite improved relations between Beijing and Taipei, a congressional report made public last week stated. “As people on both sides of the Strait consider future economic steps, strong concerns remain on both sides of the Pacific about PRC military modernization and deployments,” the report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated. “The PRC refused to renounce the use of force regarding Taiwan,” it said. “PRC leaders have stated in explicit terms that Beijing considers Taiwan’s future a ‘core’ national interest and the PRC would take military action in the event Taiwan...

YALONG BAY, China — The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, military officials and analysts say. China calls the new strategy “far sea defense,” and the speed with which it is building long-range capabilities has surprised foreign military officials... --snip-- A 2009 Pentagon report estimated Chinese naval forces at 260 vessels, including 75 “principal combatants” — major warships — and more than 60 submarines. The report...

About 25 years ago, an American intelligence officer was asked how far the Chinese could project military power. His terse answer: “About as far as their army can walk.” Today, that statement is most assuredly no longer true. China has accomplished perhaps the most remarkable expansion of military power since the US geared up for World War II. In the last 15 years it has deployed nuclear and conventional missiles that can reach US forces from the western Pacific to Washington, D.C. China’s military is also assembling a set of capabilities designed to avoid or offset traditional US advantages. This...

National Security: On the eve of a visit by China's No. 2 ranking military officer, the Obama administration loosens export controls on technology that will benefit Chinese missile development. It's deja vu all over again. The Pentagon has announced that Chinese Gen. Xu Caihou will visit the United States and meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Oct. 26. Xu is vice chairman of the People's Liberation Army Central Military Commission. While here, Xu will visit American military installations around the U.S., including the U.S. Pacific Command. Perhaps Xu will bring with him a note of thanks for the administration's...

Geopolitics: As America unilaterally disarms, a Chinese officer in a new book touts a new reality — that China is prepared to rule the roost, and the U.S. better keep off the grass. On April 5, 2009, in Prague, President Obama gave a speech in which he pledged America would work toward a "world without nuclear weapons." Almost a year later, it seems we are moving toward a world without American nuclear weapons. "To put an end to Cold War thinking," the president said, "we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urge others...

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China plans to increase its defense budget by 7.5 percent in 2010, only about half of last year's planned growth of 14.9 percent, a parliament spokesman said here on Thursday. The planned defense budget is 532.115 billion yuan (about 78 billion U.S. dollars), a rise of about 37 billion yuan from last year's defense expenditure, Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), told a press conference. Defense spending would account for 6.4 percent of the country's total fiscal expenditure in 2010, the same with last year, he said. However,...

Updated February 18, 2010 Cyberattacks Reportedly Traced to Computers in Chinese Schools" FOXNews.com SNIPPET: "The recent cyberattacks on Google and other American companies have been traced by investigators to computers at two schools in China, including one with ties to the Chinese military, according to a New York Times report citing unnamed inside sources. The Times report also says that the attacks began much earlier than first thought, as far back as April..."

Military leaders in China called for the sale of U.S. debt securities on Monday, February 8, 2010 in response to arms sales recently made to Taiwan.

The Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) annual threat assessment on China finds that the country is strengthening its ability to conduct military operations along its periphery on its own terms. According to the report, which was published in March, 2009, but was just declassified in Jan. 2010: “(China) is building and fielding sophisticated weapon systems and testing new doctrines that it believes will allow it to prevail in regional conflicts and also counter traditional U.S. military advantages. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is increasingly building its own sophisticated aircraft, surface combatants, submarines and weapon systems while still purchasing select systems from...

China’s growing role as a regional and global leader has brought with it increasingly complex and far-reaching political, economic and security interests, as well as new traditional and non-traditional security challenges for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). As a result, in 2004 President and Commander-in-Chief Hu Jintao promulgated the “New Historic Missions” (xin de lishi shiming), which effectively ordered the PLA to develop the capabilities necessary to protect China’s interests at home and abroad [1]. The concept of “multiple military tasks” (duoyanghua junshi renwu), which appeared in China’s 2006 National Defense White Paper, further defines the “New Historic Missions.”...

China is expected to deploy military forces and bases in the Middle East in the coming decade as part of an effort to protect its access to valuable resources like oil, according to British specialist on the Middle East Patrick Seale. S Seale told participants in a conference in Jordan last month that Chinese trade with Arab states amounted to $132 billion in 2008 and that its influence in the region was growing. China remains heavily reliant on oil shipments from the Middle East, including Iran and Saudi Arabia and is developing a strategy known as the “string of pearls”...

BEIJING) — China announced that its military intercepted a missile in mid-flight Monday in a test of new technology that comes amid heightened tensions over Taiwan and increased willingness by the Asian giant to show off its advanced military capabilities. The official Xinhua News Agency reported late Monday that "ground-based midcourse missile interception technology" was tested within Chinese territory. "We did not receive prior notification of the launch," Maj. Maureen Schumann, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said. "We detected two geographically separated missile launch events with an exo-atmospheric collision also being observed by space-based sensors. We are requesting information from China regarding...

Indonesia has been buying Chinese C802A anti-ship missiles. The C802A is a 6.8m (21 foot) long, 360mm, 682kg (1,500 pound) missile, with a 165kg (360 pound) warhead. The C802 has a max range of 120 kilometers, and moves along at about 250 meters a second. The French Exocet missile is the same size and performance, but costs twice as much (over a million dollars each, but the manufacturer is known to be flexible on pricing.) The Indonesians see the Chinese missiles as a much better deal, especially since Indonesia is not looking to start a war anytime soon. So why...

The U.S. Navy is looking for a sufficiently impressive foe to help scare more money out of Congress. The Chinese Navy (or, more correctly, the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy) is now the favorites candidate, for navy and defense industry analysts, to become the new Big Bad. Just how dangerous are these Chinese sailors and their ships? It turns out that, on closer inspection, not very. This is the sort of thing that what went on during the Cold War. Russian military prowess was hyped by American the military, and their defense suppliers, to justify further increases in defense spending....

In early December, the People’s Liberation Army's (PLA) publication, China Defense Daily (Zhongguo Guofang Bao), published a report that provided a rare glimpse into an underground tunnel that is being built by the Second Artillery Corps (SAC)—the PLA's strategic missile forces—in the mountainous regions of Hebei Province in northern China. The network of tunnels reportedly stretches for more than 3,107 miles (Ta Kung Pao, December 11; Xinhua News Agency, December 14). The revelation of the semi-underground tunnel highlights the strides being made by China's nuclear modernization efforts, and underscores a changing deterrent relationship between the United States and China. China's...

Heads were certainly turned during Barack Obama's goodwill tour of China, as this cheeky sailor's expression reveals. The American leader was inspecting the country's naval forces yesterday when the sailor dropped his mask of indifference and openly gawped at the president. America and China emerged from hours of intense, closed-door talks yesterday after making little progress on the key issues that divide the two nations. Despite reaffirming the importance of greater U.S.-China co-operation to world peace and stability, President Obama and President Hu Jintao were unable to disguise the deep differences that separate their countries on trade, security, climate change...

China has revealed that it has upgraded 200 Russian Kh-31P ARM (anti-radiation missiles) it imported in the 1980s. The Chinese were dissatisfied with the Russian seekers (that detected and homed in on radar transmissions), and developed one of their own. The Chinese seeker detects more radar frequencies (2-18 Ghz) and will hit within 8-10 meters of the radar transmission. The Kh-31 was originally developed as an anti-ship missile. The Russians quickly realized that, with a different seeker, the missile would also work well as an anti-radiation weapon. The anti-ship version has a range of 50 kilometers, while the ARM version...

A top Chinese general will visit the United States this month and tour major U.S. bases as Washington seeks to improve relations and reduce the risk of conlict, offi

Admiral Timothy Keating said the closed lines of communication between China and the rest of the world could increase the risk of a serious military incident. Last month, Adml Keating reached out to China's leaders, offering the prospect of joint military exercises between the US and China. "We are anxious to engage with them at the earliest opportunity," he said. "We want to understand much better than we do now China's intentions". "We're watching them," said Adml Keating. "We're paying close attention. But I don't view China as a threat. We don't want them to view us as a threat."

China's increasingly advanced weaponry could undermine US military power in the Pacific, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday. Echoing US intelligence guidelines released on Tuesday that warned of Beijing's military modernization, Gates said US naval carriers and air bases in the Pacific faced new threats from China. "In fact, when considering the military-modernization programs of countries like China, we should be concerned less with their potential ability to challenge the US symmetrically -- fighter to fighter or ship to ship -- and more with their ability to disrupt our freedom of movement and narrow our strategic options," Gates said...

The United States voiced concern Wednesday about rising tension between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea as a senator led calls to boost US seapower faced with Beijing's growing military.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China will recruit more than 120,000 college graduates this year, a military source said here Sunday. According to a website run by the Ministry of Education to help college graduates find jobs, it is the first time the PLA has recruited college graduates on such a large scale, as the army seeks to improve its overall quality by drawing more talent and advancing its science and technology.

China is developing and expanding its arsenals of nuclear warheads and strategic missiles, military experts say.

China bigger threat than Pakistan, says IAF chief 24 May 2009, NEW DELHI: India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan because New Delhi knows little about Beijing's combat capabilities, India's air force chief told a newspaper in an interview published on Sunday. The world's two most populous nations fought a brief but brutal war over their 3,500 km (2,200 mile) Himalayan border in 1962, and both sides claim the other is occupying big but largely uninhabited chunks of their territory. India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China. China has a...

China's show of its naval force last week at the 60th anniversary celebrations of the People's Liberation Army Navy has revived apprehension about its emergence as a formidable military power. Much of it is unwarranted. The logic behind China's naval build-up - which includes ballistic-missile submarines and reportedly an aircraft carrier - is compelling and understandable in a big-power context. With its far- flung trade and supply networks, Beijing needs to harness the naval capabilities necessary to defend its expanding sea lanes of communications. Chinese historians like to cite Mao Zedong, who once said that China does not 'desire one...

China is set to display its maritime might in an unprecedented show Thursday as it parades its warships and nuclear submarines with 14 other nations to mark its navy's 60th anniversary. The fleet parade takes place in the eastern city of Qingdao along with 21 foreign vessels, just weeks after tensions flared up following a naval stand-off with the United States in the South China Sea.

China's navy will develop a new generation of warships and aircraft to give it much longer-range capabilities, its commander-in-chief said in comments published Thursday. Admiral Wu Shengli told the state-run China Daily newspaper the Chinese navy wanted to develop hardware such as large combat warships, stealth submarines with abilities to travel further and supersonic cruise aircraft. More accurate long-range missiles, deep-sea torpedoes and a general upgrade of information technology were also in the pipeline, according to Wu.

BEIJING – China's navy will move faster to build large combat warships, next-generation aircraft and sophisticated torpedoes in a modernizing overhaul for fighting in an era of information technology, its commander in chief said. Sophisticated weapons are key to winning a regional sea battle, Adm. Wu Shengli told the official Xinhua News Agency late Thursday. The navy wants submarines with greater stealth capabilities, high-speed intelligent torpedoes, electronic weapons, supersonic cruise aircraft and long-range missiles with high accuracy. "The navy will move faster in researching and building new-generation weapons to boost the ability to fight in regional sea wars under the...

AUSTRALIA'S military planners have rejected the view of the US's top defence official by recommending a powerful boost to conventional naval and air forces to combat China's sustained arms build-up. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has argued that future challenges are most likely to comprise unconventional non-state conflicts, such as Afghanistan, rather than conventional warfare. But Australia's defence white paper, due to be released by the end of the month, is believed to reject the thrust of his arguments by focusing on the need to plan for conventional conflict and to commit more than $100 billion to new ships, submarines...