As for China, how realistic is it for an Islam-phobic Han regime – which has gone even to the extent of banning Ramzan fasting – to become a patron and partner of an Islamic regime committed to establishing a Sunni theocratic state based on sharia law and a Wahabi world view?
See also: Taliban To Participate In Third Regional Meeting On Afghanistan In China
CNBC:
A Chinese state-sponsored hacking group successfully compromised the computer networks of at least six U.S. state governments between May 2021 and February this year, according to research published by cybersecurity firm Mandiant on Tuesday.
The group, known as APT41, allegedly exploited vulnerabilities in web applications to get their initial foothold into state government networks, Mandiant said.
APT41, which Mandiant claims carries out state-sponsored espionage on behalf of Beijing, took advantage of software flaws and quickly exploited security vulnerabilities that were made public by researchers.
In the wake of Russia and China’s strengthened ties, the U.S. admiral who oversees America’s nuclear forces said Tuesday he is “very concerned” about potential “cooperative aggression” from the two nations.
As China refuses to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a day after China’s foreign minister called Russia his country’s “most important strategic partner,” U.S. Strategic Command’s chief, Adm. Chas Richard, said his organization must have plans ready for scenarios in which the two collaborate.
China warned the U.S. against trying to build what it called a Pacific version of NATO, while declaring that security disputes over Taiwan and Ukraine were “not comparable at all.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his annual news briefing Monday that the “real goal” of the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific strategy was to form Asia’s answer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. China has often accused the U.S. of trying to form blocs to suppress its growth, a complaint that’s likely to attract greater attention after President Vladimir Putin cited similar grievances before his invasion of Ukraine.
See also:
–China Lashes Washington Over Quad, North Korea
–White House Split Delays Plans For Investment Controls On China
New U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns has arrived to take up his post in Beijing amid heightened tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan, trade, human rights and the war in Ukraine.
See also:
–China Reiterates ‘Reunification’ With Taiwan, Firmly Opposes Foreign Interference
–China Announces South China Sea Drills Near Vietnam Coast
–U.S. F-35 Recovered From The Bottom Of The South China Sea
CNBC:
China’s defense spending this year is set to grow at its fastest pace since 2019, according to the Ministry of Finance plan released Saturday.
Defense spending will rise by 7.1% to 1.45 trillion yuan ($230.16 billion) this year, faster than the 6.8% increase in 2021 and 6.6% climb in 2020, according to official data.
China’s defense spending rose by 7.5% in 2019 to 1.19 trillion yuan.
Total central government expenditures for the general public budget are expected to rise by 14.3% to 13.40 trillion yuan this year, the finance ministry said.
“We will move faster to modernize the military’s logistics and asset management systems, and build a modern weaponry and equipment management system,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a separate annual government work report released Saturday, according to an official English-language version.
The U.S. Navy sees the 2020s as presenting the “peak risk” for China making a move against Taiwan, driving the service’s effort to prioritize readiness over fleet size, the vice chief of naval operations told lawmakers Thursday.
Adm. William Lescher told the House Armed Services Committee China clearly remains the pacing threat for the U.S. military.
“The Navy brings a strong view that the decade of concern is 2020 — and in some respects, that’s not a universal view in the department, but we consistently believe and have thought that that’s the decade that we see of peak risk and that we’re going to be ready for,” he said.
His remarks echoed those of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who spoke at a conference in Florida earlier in the day. Kendall told the audience that, “despite current events, the pacing challenge remains China.”
CNN:
A Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials in early February requested that senior Russian officials wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion into Ukraine, US officials said Wednesday.
US officials broadly view the report as credible, but its particulars are open to interpretation, according to one source familiar with the intelligence. Although the request was made around the time that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympics — where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping — it is not clear from the report whether Putin addressed the matter with Xi directly, the source said.
The New York Times first reported the existence of the report.
As reliable as US intelligence, the New York Times, and CNN are all known to be, they might have actually gotten this one right. China and Russia are in cahoots. Will the Biden Administration hold China accountable for enabling and bankrolling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Will China respond to our response with an invasion of Taiwan, in the same way that Russia responded to our response (to Russia’s acknowledgement of the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk) by invading Ukraine?
See also:
–After Russia’s Ukraine Invasion, Biden Should Prepare For Chinese Aggression
–China Will Not Join Sanctions On Russia, Banking Regulator Says
–Russia-Ukraine: Trump Says ‘Taiwan Is Next’ As ‘Xi is Watching With Glee’
A delegation of former senior United States defence and security officials appointed by President Joe Biden arrived in Taipei, in the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The visit on Tuesday, led by the one-time chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, comes at a time when Taiwan has stepped up its alert level, wary of China taking advantage of a distracted world to move against it.
China’s top diplomat called on the U.S. Monday to take steps to improve ties, as tensions simmer over Taiwan, trade and other issues.
See also: US Sails Through Taiwan Strait; China Conducts Drills On Hainan
Moscow could blunt the impact of sanctions by deepening its growing alignment with Beijing, giving both countries more leverage in their disputes with the West — but potentially fostering resentment in Russia over the increasingly lopsided relationship.
See also:
–Ukraine Invasion Tests The Ties That Bind Putin And Xi
–U.S. Looks To Make China Pay For Close Ties To Russia In Ukraine Crisis
Chinese aircraft have encroached on Taiwan’s air defense zone with increasing frequency during the past year, but Thursday’s sorties come at a particularly fraught time, just hours after Russia launched an invasion into Ukraine.
Taiwan issued radio warnings to the Chinese aircraft and “air defense missile systems deployed to monitor the activities,” the defense ministry said.
See also:
–Taiwan Warns Off Chinese Fighter Jets Amid Rising Security Fears After Ukraine Invasion
–Taiwanese Fighters Scrambled Amid Fears Beijing Could Be Emboldened by Ukraine Invasion
China isn’t backing down from its claim to ownership of Taiwan, and Beijing may be closely observing the world’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to weigh if the cost of launching an assault against Taiwan would be worth it.
Beijing wants the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China and growing tensions between the two have prompted warnings from the United States that America will back Taiwan in the event of a war.
See also:
–China Says Taiwan Is ‘Not Ukraine’ As Island Raises Alert Level
–Taiwan Military Ordered To Be Combat Ready In Case Of Disruption By ‘Outside Force’ Amid Ukraine Crisis
–Taiwan Slams Russia Over Incursion
There has long been a desire among South Koreans for domestic nuclear weapons capability, but a poll shows that in the face of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and an assertive China, that view has ballooned to more than 70 percent of the population — most of whom want to go nuclear even when the potential drawbacks are explained.
The poll, released Tuesday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, found robust support for nuclear weapons in South Korea: South Koreans want nuclear weapons even when they feel confident about the country’s alliance with the United States and about the strength of their own military. And those who support nuclear weapons now see a level of prestige associated with them.
South Korea is preparing to elect a new president on March 9 in a neck-and-neck race, and the debate over nuclear armament was reignited during the fall primary among conservative candidates as a potential party platform idea. The poll shows that domestic support for nuclear weapons is squarely in the mainstream view — and that the incoming president may need to contend with it.
A bill circulating through the Oklahoma Capitol would create a trade office in Taipei, the largest city on the island of Taiwan.
House Bill 3166 is sponsored by Republican lawmakers Rep. Judd Strom and Sen. Roland Pederson.
The bill would establish the office to “promote Oklahoma business and establishing business-to-business trading activity within the southeast Asia region,” according to a bill amendment written by Rep. Logan Phillips, the original author of the bill.
The countries of interest included in the bill are Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.
When Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, called on Saturday for talks to resolve the crisis in Europe, he said Ukraine’s sovereignty should be “respected and safeguarded” — but also sided with Russia in saying that NATO enlargement was destabilizing the continent.
“If NATO keeps expanding eastward, is it conducive to maintaining peace and stability in Europe?” he said by video at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, which Vice President Kamala Harris was attending in person to rally countries against Russia.
It was the latest instance of what Western officials say is China taking a bold new swing at the United States and its allies by wading into European security issues to explicitly back Russia, which has amassed as many as 190,000 troops around Ukraine for a possible invasion — despite the fact Ukraine is not joining NATO anytime soon.
See also: Have Russia And China Killed Nuclear Arms Control?
American businesses seeking to operate overseas typically face few barriers from the U.S. government. But when it comes to China, a bipartisan group of lawmakers — and the White House — want to change that.
Congress is considering legislation allowing the government to screen American investments in China and other adversarial nations — and potentially deny them if a project threatens national security. At the same time, the White House is talking about issuing executive orders to increase scrutiny of American funding for Chinese startups and technology firms, expanding a ban that today only exists for a select group of firms aligned with the Chinese military.
Taken together, the actions would represent an unprecedented expansion of government oversight sure to chill some American investment in the Chinese economy and escalate commercial tensions with Beijing. But supporters say they are necessary to stop American banks from funding China’s technological development and prevent U.S. supply chains from being reliant on Beijing for goods used in critical industries, like medicine, energy and defense.
“We’re in an economic war, whether we want to use that language [or not],” said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who is leading a bill with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) that would expand oversight of U.S. supply chains in China. “I think it requires that we examine some issues that maybe 10 or 15 years ago we didn’t have to worry about.”
See also: US Report Finds Big Weaknesses In China’s Defence Industry Base
As Russia threatens the largest land invasion in Europe since World War II, the most consequential strategic question of the 21st century is becoming clear: How can the United States manage two revisionist, autocratic, nuclear-armed great powers (Russia and China) simultaneously? The answer, according to many politicians and defense experts, is that Washington must moderate its response to Russia in Europe to focus on the greater threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific.
This would be a mistake.
The United States remains the world’s leading power with global interests, and it cannot afford to choose between Europe and the Indo-Pacific. Instead, Washington and its allies should develop a defense strategy capable of deterring and, if necessary, defeating Russia and China at the same time.
See also:
–Biden’s Handling Of Russia-Ukraine ‘Emboldens’ China To Move On Taiwan, Expert Warns
–Ukraine, Taiwan And The Credibility Dilemma
–Beijing Could Run Russia’s Playbook On Taiwan
Beijing’s expanding military poses a “significant threat” to the United States and the Pentagon is not ready for a conflict with China, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
“Today, China has transformed what was an obsolete military into one that can challenge the U.S. military across the spectrum of conventional and unconventional capabilities,” the GAO said in a report made public this week.
Key weaknesses identified by the congressional watchdog agency include military readiness shortfalls, force mobility problems and supply chain issues needed for new F-35 warplanes.
See also: Taiwan Sees China’s Xi As Too Focused On Party Reshuffle For Any Attack
The Biden administration criticized China in a new report released Wednesday for failing to uphold a wide range of trade commitments, including promises it made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and others in a trade deal signed with the Trump administration in 2020.
In its annual assessment of China’s compliance with its obligations to the W.T.O., the Office of the United States Trade Representative excoriated the Chinese government for flouting the global trade body’s rules and its transparent, market-oriented approach. Instead, China expanded its state-led approach to its economy and trade, causing serious harm to workers and businesses around the world, particularly in industries targeted by its industrial plans, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement.
“China has not moved to embrace the market-oriented principles on which the W.T.O. and its rules are based, despite the representations that it made when it joined 20 years ago,” Ms. Tai said.
See also:
–Vast Majority In Southeast Asia See China Topping US As Economic Power
–China Now More Willing, Able To Challenge US Military, Report Says
