Tag: China

Taiwan says threat of military clash with China is ‘on the rise’

Gerry Shih – July 22, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The prospect of a military clash in the Taiwan Strait is rising precariously, the Taiwanese foreign minister warned Wednesday, urging “extreme caution” in the island’s dealings with a Chinese leadership in Beijing that he described as both increasingly emboldened and insecure.

The Chinese military has held a growing number of exercises that simulate an invasion of Taiwan, a self-ruled island about 80 miles off China’s east coast that considers the United States its main military and diplomatic backer. The pace and scale of China’s drills, as well as those of U.S. naval and air forces deployed to the region, have risen in recent months as relations between Beijing and Washington plummet on numerous fronts.

Relations took another sharp turn Wednesday after the State Department said it ordered China to close its consulate in Houston.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said this week the United States would sell more arms to Taiwan as part of a $10 billion deal approved by Congress. He also said the U.S. military would reposition forces across Asia to prepare for a confrontation with China in flash points including self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its territory and has vowed for decades to take by force, if necessary. Inside China, the government has faced growing calls from hawkish military pundits and nationalist commentators to grasp the current strategic window to seize Taiwan, an accomplishment that could rally the Chinese population and burnish leader Xi Jinping’s political legacy.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Wednesday he was worried China has conducted an “unprecedented” number of sea and air drills around Taiwan in 2020, with the pace rising to nearly once every day since June. “The threat is on the rise,” he said.

https://www.thehour.com

China Orders US Consulate in Chengdu Closed

NewsMax – July 24, 2020

China ordered the United States on Friday to close its consulate in the western city of Chengdu, ratcheting up a diplomatic conflict at a time when relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades.

The move was a response to the Trump administration’s order this week for Beijing to close its consulate in Houston after Washington accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas.

The Chinese foreign ministry appealed to Washington to reverse its “wrong decision.”

Chinese-U.S. relations have soured amid a mounting array of conflicts including trade, the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, technology, spying accusations, Hong Kong and allegations of abuses against Chinese Muslims.

“The measure taken by China is a legitimate and necessary response to the unjustified act by the United States,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The current situation in Chinese-U.S. relations is not what China desires to see. The United States is responsible for all this,” it said. “We once again urge the United States to immediately retract its wrong decision and create necessary conditions for bringing the bilateral relationship back on track.”

Also Friday, the U.S. State Department sent out a notice warning Americans in China of a “heightened risk of arbitrary detention.”

https://www.newsmax.com

Taiwan Holds Drills to Beat Back Chinese Invasion

TruNews – July 16, 2020

Taiwan’s military held a joint air-sea-land live-fire exercise today aimed at simulating the repulsion of an invading Chinese force.

Approximately 8,000 personnel participated in the annual Han Kuang drills, which included American-made F-16 and domestically produced Ching-kuo fighter jets, and tanks. They defended a small strip of coastal land near Taichung.

Afterward, President Tsai Ing-wen praised the military, saying it had proved its determination to defend the island nation:

“The Han Kuang exercises are a major annual event for the armed forces, evaluating development of combat abilities. Even more, it lets the world see our determination and efforts to defend the country’s territory.

“As I have said, national security does not rely on bowing and sraping but on solid national defense. All our officers and soldiers are the core of that.”

She also expressed “grievous pain” over the death of two officers who were killed in a helicopter crash during a combat-readiness mission connected to the Han Kuang exercises. The officers’ helicopter crashed after catching on fire.

Tsai also vowed to continue to reform the Taiwanese military.

https://www.trunews.com

India-China Relations Slipping Back to 1962 War Situation, Analyst Believes

Sputnik News – June 17, 2020

New Delhi (Sputnik): The violent skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops on Monday night, which resulted in dozens of casualties on both sides, were billed as the worst flare-up at the border since the two armies clashed in 1962.

Since Tuesday, Beijing and New Delhi have repeatedly accused each other of provoking clashes at the Line of Actual Control, where at least 20 Indian troops were killed on Monday night, but agreed to de-escalate tensions as soon as possible on Wednesday.

Rajeshwari Rajagopalan, a distinguished fellow at the private think-tank the Observer Research Foundation, felt the developments could not have resulted from a field-level flare-up between the two armies.

“They have been doing it with all their neighbours from the beginning of the year. You have seen the Chinese going in a very, very aggressive fashion with Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and to some extent Vietnam – sinking of Vietnamese fishing vessels and on the eastern side with Taiwan and we are the last one”, said Rajeshwarai.

Media reports from Beijing also indicated that the Chinese military recently conducted joint exercises “aimed at destruction of key hostile hubs in a high-elevation mountainous region”, the Chinese Army’s Tibet Military Command revealed on Tuesday (16 June). The exercises involved combat forces, special operative forces, army aviation troops, electronic countermeasure forces, engineering and anti-chemical warfare troops, long-range artillery systems, and ground-to-air missile systems.

https://sputniknews.com

China develops weapons to fry US electric grid, eyes high-tech ‘Pearl Harbor’ attack

Paul Bedard – June 18, 2020

With the help of stolen U.S. technology, China has developed at least three types of high-tech weapons to attack the electric grid and key technologies in a “surprise Pearl Harbor” assault that could send America into a deadly blackout, according to a new analysis.

According to the report from the independent EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, China has built a network of satellites, high-speed missiles, and “super-electromagnetic pulse” weapons that could melt down the U.S. electric network, fry critical communications, and stifle aircraft carrier groups.

According to the report, written by the task force’s executive director, Peter Pry, long an expert on EMP warfare, China developed the weapons as part of its “Total Information Warfare” that includes hacking raids on computers.

What’s more, despite China’s promises to attack only after being attacked, Pry revealed new data to show that the communist nation is lying and eager to shoot first with “high-altitude electromagnetic pulse,” or HEMP, weapons launched from satellites, ships, and land.

“China’s military doctrine — including numerous examples presented here of using HEMP attack to win on the battlefield, defeat U.S. aircraft carriers, and achieve against the U.S. homeland a surprise ‘Pearl Harbor’ writ large — is replete with technical and operational planning consistent with a nuclear first-strike,” said Pry in his report, provided to Secrets. It is shown below.

He added that while some believe China’s promise not to fire first, there are key U.S. officials who don’t buy it. For example, he cited February 2020 testimony from the chief of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, who said that he could “drive a truck through” China’s no-first-use policy.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com

China races to prevent virus second wave

Jing Xuan Teng – June 18, 2020

China imposed travel restrictions on nearly half a million people near its capital on Thursday to contain a fresh coronavirus outbreak as deaths surged in other parts of the world.

The threat of a second wave hitting China, which had largely brought the virus under control, and rising tolls in Latin America and South Asia underscore the global challenge in slowing down the pandemic that has killed more than 450,000 people.

The world economy has also taken a hit, with the US Labor Department saying another 1.5 million American workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the number of people laid off, at least temporarily, by COVID-19 to 45.7 million.

With scientists around the globe racing to find a vaccine, the World Health Organization said it hoped that a few hundred million COVID-19 vaccine doses could be produced this year, and two billion by the end of 2021.

“If we’re very lucky, there will be one or two successful candidates before the end of this year,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, adding that priority would be given to key workers and vulnerable people.

https://www.terradaily.com

NATO Launches New Massive Exercise on Russia’s Doorstep

Tru-News – June 11, 2020

NATO is sending yet another provocative message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, sending an armada of warships, more than two dozen aircraft, and 3,000 personnel from 19 countries into the Baltic Sea for “drills.”

The 10-day BaltOps exercise will include participants from the U.S., UK, France, Germany, and the former Soviet satellite states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The annual drill, a relic of the Cold War dating back to the early-1970s, will be commanded remotely from NATO’s new Joint Operations Center in Lisbon, Portugal.

During the first phase of BaltOps, the various military units will learn how to work together. In the second phase, they will test their ability to “respond to threats” in coordination with one another. Typically, it also includes ground operations, but that phase has been eliminated due to risk of spreading COVID-19.

The exercises take place against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s decision to remove 9,500 American soldiers from Germany. That move prompted a backlash from British politicians who say it will “play into Russia’s hands.”

It also comes as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has suggested a pivot in the alliance’s mission. During a speech this week, he said the organization must focus on the threat posed by China “to our values and way of life.” He added that there needs to be a “more global approach” to dealing with Beijing:

“The rise of China is fundamentally shifting the global balance of power, heating up the race for economic and technological supremacy, multiplying the threats to open societies and individual freedoms and increasing the competition over our values and our way of life.

“We cannot ignore the consequences of the rise of China. China will soon have the biggest economy in the world, and they already have the second largest defense budget. They are investing heavily in new modern capabilities.”

https://www.trunews.com

New Cold War Tensions Building Between U.S., China

TruNews – June 3, 2020

It’s difficult to know how much longer the “good friendship” between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping can endure the growing tensions between the U.S. and China, especially after the latest development.

Today, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece Global Times published an editorial that blasted the U.S., and President Trump in particular, for the violent riots that have erupted across the country:

“As more and more netizens question ‘whether this is how U.S. President Donald Trump makes America great again,’ observers see a weak, irresponsible, and incompetent leadership navigating the country into a completely opposition direction, with all-out efforts to deflect public attention from its own failure. The protests exposed long-standing issues in the U.S., including racial inequality, discrimination, and a polarized society, which have been amplified under the Trump administration.”

The article goes on to claim American politicians have been blaming China for “inflaming the social unrests (sic).” To date, no U.S. politician has made that claim.

Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin personally took things even further Tuesday when he wrote in a separate article:

“When riot breaks out in the U.S., they want to use all means necessary, and cannot stand the loss of order for even one more day. What they are facing are merely unorganized protesters. If this was organized subversion, what would they do? Will they drop an atomic bomb?”

https://www.trunews.com

India and China Move In More Troops as Border Tensions Rise

Archana Chaudhary, Sudhi Ranjan Sen – May 27, 2020

(Bloomberg) — India has moved additional troops along its northern border as it prepares for an extended conflict with neighbor China, after several rounds of talks failed to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

China has already placed about 5,000 soldiers and armored vehicles within its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh region, an Indian government official said, asking not to be identified citing rules. India is adding a similar number of troops as well as artillery guns along the border to fend off the continuing incursions by Chinese army, the official said.

The standoff began on May 5, when troops clashed on the banks of Pangong Tso — a glacial lake at 14,000 feet in the Tibetan plateau — leaving scores of soldiers on both sides injured. Since then there has been a steady build up of troops amid continuing face-offs.

Diplomats in New Delhi and Beijing have begun talks after negotiations between Indian and Chinese military officials on May 22 and 23 brought no results, the official said. China’s move to step up incursions at two different locations along the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) undemarcated border is a deviation from its earlier attempts to gain territory after the two nations fought a war in 1962,according to the officials.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet Wednesday that he had offered to mediate. There was no immediate response from India or China.

https://www.bloombergquint.com

Drums of War Beating Loudly All Over the World

Tru News – May 20, 2020

The drums of war seem to be beating loudly again—this time all over the world—with Russia, China, and Iran all preparing for direct conflict with the U.S.

Russia has expressed its dismay after the U.S. ambassadors to Germany and Poland both, within days of each other, suggested American nuclear weapons are necessary and could be redeployed closer to Russia’s border. The fiasco began last Thursday when Ambassador Ric Grenell—who serves jointly as ambassador to Germany and as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser—wrote an article slamming Berlin for threatening to renege on its commitments to NATO.

Grenell wrote, in part:

“The purpose of NATO’s nuclear share is to keep non-nuclear member states involved in the planning of NATO’s deterrence policy. Germany’s participation in nuclear share ensures that its voice matters. If Germany seeks to be a true power for peace, now is the time for solidarity. Will Germany bear this responsibility, or will it sit back and simply enjoy the economic benefits of security provided by its other Allies?

“German political leaders speak often about the need to look at not only total military spending, but at specific capabilities needed for our collective security. A credible nuclear deterrent, including through nuclear-capable aircraft, is a core NATO capability. One that remains needed in today’s world, and one that Germany has pledged to contribute to.”

Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher, Washington’s representative in Poland, shared Grenell’s commentary on Friday. In doing so, she added her own commentary:

“If Germany wants to diminish nuclear capability and weaken NATO, perhaps Poland—which pays its fair share, understands the risks, and is on NATO’s eastern flank—could house the capabilities here.”

https://www.trunews.com