During his confirmation hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mark Lippert, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, was asked about the Administration’s decision to provide the Taiwan air force with only upgrades to its 20-year-old F-16 A/Bs rather than selling new F-16 C/Ds, as Taipei has requested. (It is important to note here that the F-16 C/D sale was to replace the obsolete F-5s and Mirage-2000s that are still in the Taiwan inventory rather than augment the current F-16 A/B fleet.) Stating that …
Recent news reports have highlighted Chinese construction of a system of underground tunnels and raised serious questions about what they might imply regarding China’s nuclear capabilities. One story highlighted that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) may have some 3,000 miles of tunnels, sufficient to move systems underground across the breadth of the country. Much of this was apparently dug by the Second Artillery Force, which is responsible for China’s nuclear forces, so the assumption is that many of these tunnels are related to China’s nuclear deterrent. The most commonly …
At the end of a series of closed-door briefings and meetings with the congressional committees of jurisdiction—after repeatedly admonishing all who would listen that its final decision wasn’t really final—the Obama Administration has finally stated its position on F-16 sales to Taiwan. It turns out that the Administration is, in fact, going to follow the very game plan that rumors had indicated since late in the spring: Upgrade Taiwan’s F-16 A/Bs (now 20 years old) as part of a new arms package, but not sell the island any F-16 C/Ds …
The stage is set for significantly heightened tensions along China’s southern coast. China recently warned that Indian companies should not engage in oil exploration in Vietnamese waters claimed by China, and India rebuffed China’s implicit claim that those waters are Chinese territories. The Chinese message referred to portions of the South China Sea that are in dispute between China and Vietnam, with a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson stating, “Our consistent position is that we are opposed to any country engaging in oil and gas exploration and development activities in waters …
A video of a Chinese general’s discussing officials who were caught spying against Beijing has recently garnered a significant amount of attention. Much of the discussion has centered on the significance of a Chinese general apparently criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and whether this presages a split between military and civilian leadership. But Major General Jin Yinan, director of the Strategic Teaching and Research Department at the Chinese National Defense University, is not simply criticizing the Party. Instead, the available video of his entire speech, which lasts more than …
The much-delayed 2011 Department of Defense (DOD) report on Chinese military and security developments highlights the growing Chinese emphasis on cyber security and cyberwarfare. As the report notes, “PRC military writings highlight the seizure of electromagnetic dominance in the early phases of a campaign.” Coinciding with the release of the DOD report, media coverage has emerged of a China Central Television (CCTV) video clip of Chinese cyber activities aimed at dissident organizations. The clip, shown on CCTV-7, the official military channel of the state-run CCTV network, included screenshots of a …
Whether it is the delayed release of the 2011 Department of Defense (DOD) report on Chinese military and security developments or Vice President Joe Biden’s statements regarding Chinese human rights, it is becoming clear that the Obama Administration has an utterly incoherent view of the People’s Republic of China. Biden apparently sees his statement (“Your policy has been one which I fully understand—I’m not second-guessing—of one child per family”) as actually arguing against the Chinese policy. Similarly, even as the Administration was signaling, just before the Vice President’s trip, that …
On the same day, we have two arguments presented about whether to increase military-to-military engagement of the Chinese military, also known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). On the one hand, we have Admiral Mike Mullen, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arguing that the very act of engaging the Chinese in military-to-military talks will facilitate the creation of strategic trust. As Admiral Mullen states in his op-ed in The New York Times, dialogue is critical, because it clears up misunderstandings and helps keep a focus on …
With the safe return of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, American ability to put astronauts into space come to an end—50 years after Alan Shepard piloted Freedom 7 into the heavens and became the first American to enter outer space. Later this year, China will remind the world that it remains committed to what the United States no longer seems interested in—being able to put a man in space. The Chinese are expected to place the Tiangong–1, resembling the U.S. Skylab or the Soviet Salyut space labs, into orbit sometime later …
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen will be in the People’s Republic of China for much of the next week to engage in talks with his counterparts from the People’s Liberation Army. His visit comes amidst a thaw in U.S.–Chinese military-to-military relations, capped by the visit of General Chen Bingde, chief of the Chinese general staff. The Chinese have long seen military-to-military contact as a U.S. “ask”—particularly since 1999, when Congress imposed legal restrictions on precisely what sort of information could be shared. Therefore, Admiral Mullen’s …
