Xi Jinping

Panel: Taiwan Needs More Capacity to Defend Itself as China’s Military Modernizes

Taiwan’s indigenous fighter. CNA Photo

Taiwan must take the necessary steps to ensure its own defenses – from upgrading air and missile defenses and raising reserve forces’ readiness to protecting vital infrastructure like its water supply – to keep China at arm’s length, three experts on Pacific security said Wednesday.

“Taiwan is nowhere where it needs to be” in beefing up its own defenses, Michael Mazzarr, associate director of the strategy and doctrine program at RAND’s Arroyo Center, said...

https://news.usni.org/2021/07/29/panel-taiwan-needs-more-capacity-to-defend-itself-as-chinas-military-modernizes

Report on Chinese Nuclear and Missile Proliferation

The following is the Congressional Research Service May 17, 2021 In Focus report, Chinese Nuclear and Missile Proliferation

From the report

The U.S. government has continued to express concerns about China’s record concerning the proliferation of nuclear- and missile-related technologies to other countries, with more recent focus on the threat of Chinese acquisition of U.S.-origin nuclear technology. Official U.S. government reports indicate that the Chinese government has apparently ended its...

https://news.usni.org/2021/05/18/report-on-chinese-nuclear-and-missile-proliferation

Chinese Navy Faces Overseas Basing Weakness, Report Says

A Chinese warship is seen at the port of Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania, Aug. 16, 2017. Xinhua Photo

A major weakness “the largest navy in the world” has yet to solve is where Beijing will find skilled shipyard workers and modern facilities to maintain its fleet’s combat readiness far from its shores, the co-author of a major study examining Chinese vulnerabilities said Thursday.

Speaking in a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis online forum, Toshi Yoshihara said, “Chinese analysts...

https://news.usni.org/2021/01/22/chinese-navy-faces-overseas-basing-weakness-report-says

China’s Long Journey To Decarbonize

  • Natural gas has yet to hit its peak by 2030 before it begins to decline, but still has a greater role in the energy mix than oil by 2050.
  • Coal accounted for about 58% of China’s total primary energy consumption in 2019, followed by petroleum accounting for 20%.
  • Platts Analytics said it assumes China will have about 600 GW of operational coal capacity by 2050.
  • State-owned enterprises accounted for a 36% share of global energy investment in 2019, and around 40% of power, oil and gas investment.

C...

https://mfame.guru/chinas-journey-to-decarbonize/

Despite Military Improvements, Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Still ‘Highly Risky’ Says Former Pentagon Official

Soldiers of the 74th Army Group of the People’s Liberation Army take part in a battle drill in a coastal area of Guangdong province on June 1, 2020. Xinhua Photo

Xi Jinping’s go hard approach to bringing Taiwan to heel isn’t about to let up, but “it would be highly risky” for China to believe the United States would not intervene if it launched an all-out cross-straits invasion, a former senior Trump administration Pentagon official said.

Speaking Monday at an Atlantic Council online forum,...

https://news.usni.org/2020/10/20/despite-military-improvements-chinese-invasion-of-taiwan-still-highly-risky-says-former-pentagon-official

U.S. Working to End Chinese Secrecy Around Nuclear Capabilities

Chinese leader Xi Jinping aboard a PLA Navy ship. Xinhua photo

America’s senior arms negotiator said Washington is taking diplomatic and military steps to put an end to Beijing’s “great wall of secrecy” that surrounds its rapid and expanding strategic weapons program.

Speaking at a Heritage Foundation online forum this week, Marshall Billingslea, senior envoy for arms control, said Xi Jin-ping and the Communist Party leadership are engaged “in a crash nuclear build-up” with the intent of...

https://news.usni.org/2020/10/15/u-s-working-to-end-chinese-secrecy-around-nuclear-capabilities

Analyst: China Exceeded Expectations in Speed of Naval Growth

Chinese sailors. Xinhua Photo

China surpassed every American security planners’ expectations in its successful building and deploying of the world’s largest maritime fleet in just 20 years, a leading naval strategist said Wednesday. The question now is what Beijing’s military and paramilitary forces will look like in the future.

Toshi Yoshihara, a co-author of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments’ new report “Which Way the Dragon?,” said looking ahead 15 years the “structural...

https://news.usni.org/2020/09/10/analyst-china-exceeded-expectations-in-speed-of-naval-growth

Pentagon Report: China Now Has World’s Largest Navy as Beijing Expands Military Influence

Chinese president Xi Jinping tours People’s Liberation Army Navy warship. Xinhua Photo

China is bent on creating a world-class military that can conduct joint operations across the globe and already boasts the world’s largest navy, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual assessment of the Chinese military.

A “permanent condition of military inferiority is anathema” to China’s leadership and nowhere is that more obvious in its naval build-up, Chad Sbragia, deputy assistant secretary of defense...

https://news.usni.org/2020/09/01/pentagon-report-china-now-has-worlds-largest-navy-as-beijing-expands-military-influence

Floods Hit China As World’s Largest Dam Reaches its Maximum Capacity

  • Extreme floods have hit China’s Three Gorges dam, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history.
  • Inflows to the world’s largest hydro-electric dam reached 75m litres of water a second, according to state media.
  • The Three Gorges dam, which can handle inflows of about 98.8m litres a second, is already approaching its capacity.
  • Upstream from the dam, officials in the city of Chongqing, in Sichuan province, evacuated almost 300,000 residents before the flooding.
  • The flooding threatens...

https://mfame.guru/floods-hit-china-as-worlds-largest-dam-reaches-its-maximum-capacity/

Singapore PM: U.S.-Chinese Relations at ‘Very Dangerous’ Level

Lee Hsien Loong at the G20 on Dec. 1, 2018

The relationship between Washington and Beijing has sunk to such a “very dangerous” level with no sign of tensions easing after the next U.S. presidential election, the prime minister of Singapore said Tuesday.

Lee Hsien Loong said his city-state nation and others in Asia are increasingly worried that America “treating China as an adversary” could lead to dangerous outcomes, he said speaking at an online forum of The Atlantic Council.

The first potential...

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