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Following now completed joint war games held by the US, Japan, France and Australia in the East China Sea off the southwest coast of Japan earlier this month, China has lashed out particularly at its large regional neighbor Australia, calling its military “weak” and “insignificant” at a moment the two are locked in a severe trade and diplomatic tit-for-tat dispute. Beijing voiced specific threats and warnings via its state-run English language mouthpiece Global Times, which recently wrote, “Australia’s military is too weak to be a worthy opponent of China, and if it dares to interfere in a military conflict for...

Speaking earlier retired US Navy captain and now defence consultant Carl Schuster demanded Western patrols sail to the South China Sea to hold back the Chinese navy. On Friday, President Xi Jinping launched the Hainan, a type 075 amphibious assault ship that will be deployed in the South China Sea at a ceremony in Sanya, in the Hainan province. The new ship, which is now China's largest assault ship, marks Beijing's most 'ambitious' amphibious assault ship with an estimated displacement weight of about 40,000 tonnes, according to reports. According to the South China Morning post the ship can carry an...

Red China constantly rethinks how it will become the world's leading superpower, and plans accordingly. The Epoch Times has just published a detailed plan delivered in a speech in July, 2016, laying out how the People's Republic can overtake the United States as the world's leading nation. Professor Jin Canrong, from the School of International Studies in Beijing, explained how the PRC, following Xi Jinping's call for a national rejuvenation, could accomplish it. The speech, kept secret until now, combined four elements: 1) weakening the United States by becoming increasingly involved in American affairs, and 2) infiltrating Chinese agents into...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said "it would be serious mistake" for China to strike at Taiwan and expressed "real concerns" about Russia's massing of forces on the border with Ukraine. In addressing concerns about America's two great Cold War rivals, Blinken stopped short of promising U.S. military intervention — "I'm not going to get into hypotheticals" — but did vow there would be "consequences." Speaking to host Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press," Blinken said of Chinese belligerence toward Taiwan, "We have a commitment to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act, a bipartisan commitment that's existed...

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The Biden administration is not inviting Russia to join the G7 group of world leaders, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday, backing away from former President Donald Trump’s push for Moscow’s membership. Any invitation for Russia to join the G7 would be made in partnership with all of the group’s members, she told reporters, speaking aboard Air Force One.

Southeast Asia will take a major economic hit if shipping is blocked in the South China Sea. military conflict in the South China Sea would force most shipping from Europe, the Middle East and Africa destined for Asia and the US west coast to be diverted around the south of Australia. The additional shipping cost would bring reductions in economic activity around the world, but with dire effects on countries at the epicentre, according to a study published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research. The study shows that the countries most exposed to economic loss from a regional...

China also seems to have a military agenda in the Caribbean region... Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe already is on record expressing China's willingness to deepen military cooperation with Caribbean countries. Of more concern to US security interests is the ongoing seaport expansion project in the already commercially important port at Kingston, Jamaica, as well as the port at Freeport, Bahamas, China's possible new base of operations 90 miles off the US coast. China is clearly not a government that honors its agreements.... The US can ill afford any Chinese drive to place under threat any Western Hemisphere country, much...

In 1995, Michael Pillsbury, an expert on China who has worked with every US president since Nixon and has, he writes, “arguably had more access to China’s military and intelligence establishment than any other Westerner,” was reading an article written by “three of China’s preeminent military experts” about “new technologies that would contribute to the defeat of the United States.” Enlarge Image Michael PillsburyWikipedia It was in this article that Pillsbury first saw the term “Assassin’s Mace,” which refers to a weapon from Chinese folklore that guarantees a small combatant victory over a larger, more powerful opponent.

China said on Friday it firmly opposes the United States’ wanton oppression of its companies and asked America to stop abusing the concept of national security, after the Trump administration added China’s SMIC and CNOOC to a defense blacklist. It will severely harm the U.S. interest and image, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing. The United States on Thursday added China’s top chipmaker, SMIC, and oil giant CNOOC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies, a move likely to escalate tensions with Beijing before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Images of tanks firing live rounds and soldiers engaging in target practice in the deserts of Djibouti, east Africa played on Chinese state television Friday. The soldiers were from China’s only overseas military base, which was completed in the country only months ago. Beijing-based military analyst Zhou Chenming told The South China Morning Post that the exercises were likely a prelude to more sophisticated drills to be held later this year. “The overseas troops will engage in regular military exercises just like troops serving [in China]. But their practice should soon have a different focus, rather than basic shooting training,...

The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was For some time now no navy or air force has posed a threat to the United States. Our only competition has been armies, whether conventional forces or guerrilla insurgencies. This will soon change. The Chinese navy is poised to push out into the Pacific—and when it does, it will very quickly encounter a U.S. Navy and Air Force unwilling to budge from the coastal shelf of the...