Sunday, February 22, 2009

China Threat aircraft carriers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Ashai Shimbun 14 Feb 2009.
BEIJING--In a move likely to stoke concerns in Tokyo, Washington and throughout Asia, China plans to greatly expand the reach and firepower of its navy by building at least two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Analysts believe China is expanding its naval power as part of a push toward strategic dominance over the western Pacific, including the waters that surround Japan.

Military sources said the first nuclear-powered flattops would be constructed in 2020 or later. China will begin construction of two conventional aircraft carriers this year.

According to sources, a meeting was held in Beijing on Dec. 30 among military officials.

A high-ranking military officer said the navy would begin construction of the two conventional aircraft carriers this year. Production of parts for the electricity control system has already begun in China and plans call for completing the two conventional carriers by around 2015.

A system for operating those carriers will be established by 2020, according to sources. Those two carriers would allow Beijing to extend its defensive reach beyond a so-called 1st extended defensive line linking Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The two nuclear-power carriers being considered would be about 60,000 tons in displacement. Chinese officials have already obtained blueprints from Russia for the Ulyanovsk nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which Russia no longer intends to build.

Chinese officials will likely use the blueprint as a reference point for their own development of a nuclear-powered carrier.

Analysts said China eventually wants to secure maritime control over the western Pacific that would lie within a so-called 2nd extended defensive line stretching from Japan to Guam and Indonesia.

The ultimate goal for China would be serving as a counter force to the U.S. Navy for the entire Pacific and Indian oceans.

A Chinese military source said: "The two conventional aircraft carriers we will begin constructing from this year will only be the opening gambit. While constructing and operating nuclear-powered aircraft carriers will require huge amounts of money, it will not be a large barrier considering our present pace of economic development, so there is the possibility of building even more in the future."

The white paper on national defense released by China on Jan. 20 for the first time clearly stated a policy of "improving strategic capabilities in distant waters." However, no mention was made of constructing aircraft carriers.

The Chinese navy has set up a special task force for construction of aircraft carriers titled, "the 048 office."

Construction has already begun on a wharf along Yalong Bay in the Sanya district of Hainan island. The wharf would provide base functions for aircraft carriers as well as include underground storage for ammunition.

Currently, only the United States and France have nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Chinese spy ring threat

Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz (Contact)
Chinese spy ring

A new book on the Chi Mak spy case presents new information on the case of a family ring that provided defense information to China. "Snake Fish: The Chi Mak Spy Ring," by lawyer and intelligence specialist Edward M. Roche, is based on trial documents and other records.

It discloses that during the Mak trial, the FBI produced a translation of a letter written by Gu Wei Hao, an agent of the Chinese Ministry of Aviation, to former Boeing engineer Greg Chung, asking Mr. Chung to collect data on commercial airliners and the U.S. space shuttle and give the information to Chi Mak, who would then send it to China.

According to the book, Mr. Gu was related to Chi Mak's wife and supplied her with letters to Mak, who was convicted in May 2007 of conspiracy to provide China with embargoed defense technology and is serving a 24-year prison term.

Mr. Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China, was arrested in February 2008 and charged with economic espionage for China. His trial is scheduled for May in Southern California.

"By making linkages between the work of Chung at Boeing and the aerospace documents found at Chi Mak's house, the prosecution had confirmed an important linkage in their theory of the espionage ring," Mr. Roche stated. "The perception given to the jury no doubt was that Chi Mak was acting as a conduit for aerospace information flowing from the United States to China."

Another detail disclosed in the book is that the U.S. government may have detected a 2004 telephone call inside China from Mak to his Chinese handler, Pu Pei Liang, who was identified in the book as a Chinese intelligence official. Mr. Roche stated that the phone call was used by prosecutors to bolster the conspiracy charges against Mak, his brother and three other family members.

The book also states that prosecutors suspected, but could not prove, that Mak passed classified information to China about the Navy's next generation destroyer, called the DDX.

"A DDX document which contained detailed specifications about the DDX destroyer was found encrypted and deleted on Tai Mak's computer," he wrote. Tai Mak is Chi Mak's brother and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate export law as part of the ring.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, told reporters in Beijing last year that the spying charges against Mr. Chung were "baseless" and the result of the U.S. government's "Cold War thinking."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/05/inside-the-ring-1050494/print/

the China Threat go to Indian Ocean !!!!!!!!!!!

Indian submarine spooked warship: Chinese media
New Delhi: An Indian Kilo class submarine spooked Chinese warships that were sent to patrol pirate infested waters in the Gulf of Aden and the two navies engaged in an hour long game of 'hide and seek' in international waters last month, Chinese media reports have said.

In the first such incident involving Indian and Chinese warships that has come to light, media reports from China said that its warships 'forced' the Indian submarine to surface after over an hour of maneuvers during which anti submarine choppers were scrambled from the Chinese destroyers.

While officers in the Indian Navy have acknowledged that track was being kept of the Chinese warships that transited from the Malacca Straits to Somalia waters, they denied that the India sub was forced to surface during the 'encounter'.

"It is a routine procedure. We do keep track of warships transiting near Indian waters through all means possible. However, the reports of the Indian submarine having surfaced are incorrect," a senior Navy Officer said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indian-submarine-spooked-chinese-warship-rep.../419210/


3: japan and india:

Dangerous Democracies

the inevitable rise of japan and india
china's assessment of japan and india differs sharply from America's. This chapter surveys 82 Chinese authors on the future role of Japan and India. Chinese authors have addressed Japan's predicted rise to become the strongest or second-strongest world power by 2020, its alleged ambitions to dominate China, its drive to attain equivalence with the United States in both nuclear and conventional weapons, its prospects to implement a revolution in military affairs (RMA), and its efforts to contain China's rise by instigating conflict between China and the United States. Differences do exist among Chinese analysts about Japan's future, but the range of debate is not extensive. There are those who see only "some elements" in Japan having the above-mentioned ambitions, rather than a dedicated Japanese elite. (279) Chinese assessments of India resemble (on a smaller scale) their views of Japan's future role, suggesting that similar premises are at work in the way China's authors examine its two democratic and capitalist neighbors. Following India's nuclear tests in May 1998, in particular, numerous Chinese authors have accused India of pursuing a policy of military expansion since attaining independence, in order to become a military power, contain China, and dominate and control South Asia and the Indian Ocean.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/doctrine/pills2/part06.htm

Monday, February 2, 2009