Free Republic

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...

LONDON – Defense analysts for the British intelligence service MI6 believe China is preparing for the "eventuality of a nuclear war." The conclusion follows evidence that Beijing has built secretly a major naval base deep inside caverns which even sophisticated satellites cannot penetrate, says a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. In an unusual development, the analysts have provided details to the specialist defense periodical, Jane's Intelligence Review, which published satellite images of the base location which is hidden beneath millions of tons of rock on the South China Sea island of Hainan. The MI6 analysts have confirmed the submarine...

Commentary: China silently nuclearizing South Asia MANIPAL, Sep. 17 M.D. NALAPAT Column: Future Present In 1999 this columnist put forward the theory of a "proxy nuclear state," a country that has had nuclear capability grafted onto it by an outside power. Thus far, China has developed two such states -- North Korea (to harry Japan) and Pakistan (to contain India). A third, Bangladesh, is well on the way, with Iran a likely candidate for a future in which tensions with the United States reach the 1950s level. China's warming strategic relationship with Russia has resulted in Moscow going along as...

Behind a door disguised as the entrance to a post office, beneath ten metres of earth, lies the command headquarters of China’s first nuclear weapons research programme. From the chairs, pencils and air filter machines it seems that the generals left only yesterday, but nowadays the only visitors are curious tourists. Guides at the long-secret site gesture towards the concrete envelope that encases the remaining radioactive debris, reassuring visitors that it is perfectly safe. The site is all that remains of the complex where scientists took the world by surprise in 1964 by transforming one of the world’s poorest nations...

Kyodo) _ A group of U.S. nuclear experts published on a magazine Thursday a satellite photograph showing an underground facility for the only existing nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine in China. Many experts have pointed out the existence of such an underground facility, but it is the first time it has been actually disclosed in a photograph, said Hans Kristensen, one of the five experts who co-authored the article including the photograph in the latest edition of Imaging Notes magazine. The photo is one of the five published photographs on China's nuclear-related facilities. They were taken by a commercial satellite and...

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - Former president Bill Clinton called Congress' impeachment of him an "egregious" abuse of the Constitution and challenged those who say history will judge him poorly because of his White House tryst with Monica Lewinsky. Speaking at an academic conference examining his presidency here Thursday, Clinton challenged historian Douglas Brinkley's comments in a newspaper interview that Clinton would be deemed a great president were it not for his impeachment. "I completely disagree with that," Clinton said in his speech at Hofstra University. "You can agree with that statement, but only if you think impeachment was justified. Otherwise, it...