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China set five live-fire zones from 12 October, none in the Taiwan Strait, but a closure would hit shipping, insurance and US chip supply chains. The post Taiwan Strait Risk and the Cost of a Closure appeared first on The Rio Times.
Chinese military aircraft may already be using a new joint aviation facility in Laos, with satellite imagery showing twice as many K-8/JL-8-family trainer aircraft there as the Laotian air force is assessed to possess. Eight of the two-seat trainer and light-attack aircraft were visible at Ban Keun Airport in commercial satellite imagery taken on September 30, according to Reuters, which first reported the images. More than two dozen military and support vehicles were also visible. The image was...
As Russian President Vladimir Putin watched the final stage of the massive Tsentr-2026 military exercise in the Urals recently, Chinese troops were training alongside forces from Russia, Belarus and other countries. More than 47,000 military personnel joined the exercise, which incorporated lessons from the war in Ukraine. The symbolism extends beyond Chelyabinsk. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Chinese military exercises with Belarus – and now China’s participation alongside Russian and...
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China tried 3 times to talk crime families out of scam business in Myanmar: CCTV China tried three times to persuade powerful families in northern Myanmar to shut down scam operations before Myanmar police carried out large-scale...
China is running the most systematic effort of any outside power to learn from the drone war in Ukraine, with military and defence-industry analysts typically writing up new battlefield techniques within about four months, according to a new analysis. But it usually took a year or more before those lessons showed up publicly in People’s Liberation Army (PLA) training, equipment or force structure, Lilly Min-Chen Lee and Kateryna Bondar wrote in a commentary published on October 7 by the...
A newly opened China-backed air force training centre in Laos could unsettle Vietnam, even as it aims to modernise Vientiane’s military and balance defence ties among Beijing, Moscow and Hanoi, observers say. China’s National Defence Ministry said last Tuesday that the joint support and training facility at Ban Keun Airport in the Laotian capital would strengthen the expertise of local air force pilots and was “not directed against any third party”. “The establishment and operation of the two...
In December 2022, a Chinese J-11 fighter came within metres of a US RC-135 surveillance plane over the South China Sea, according to the US military, which criticised it as an unsafe manoeuvre. China, however, held the American crew responsible and claimed the RC-135 had suddenly veered towards the Chinese jet despite repeated warnings. Both sides released video footage, yet neither accepted the other’s account of the incident. This and other such close encounters involved human pilots. The next...
Indonesia is expected to receive its first Chengdu J-10CE fighter jets in six months, according to an Indonesian media report, which would make it the third international operator of the Chinese-made aircraft. Jakarta confirmed an order of 42 of the 4.5-generation fighter jets – known as Vigorous Dragons – last October, with an approved budget of US$9 billion. The first delivery is expected in April though it is not known how many aircraft will be delivered, Indonesian news outlet Republika...
Turkmenistan has added the FK-2000 missile-and-gun system to its growing arsenal of Chinese-made air defences, highlighting Beijing’s expanding role in the Central Asian weapons market once dominated by Russia. At least 10 FK-2000 vehicles – along with an array of other Chinese-made military equipment – could be seen in footage of Turkmenistan’s Independence Day parade in Ashgabat on September 27. Developed by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, the FK-2000 is a...
The United States has accused mainland China of hiring an American citizen of Chinese origin to surveil the family of Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te, days after President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington. The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Sunday arrested 34-year-old Zhang Wanying at Los Angeles International Airport, alleging that she attempted to flee the country and charged her with acting as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government. The FBI accused her of surveilling...
For more than eight decades, the remains of US fighter pilot Morton Sher lay unrecovered in China. A photograph of a memorial to him in a Hunan village eventually helped investigators find where his plane crashed in 1943. Sher was buried in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, in December 2025, a homecoming that offers a rare example of what US-China cooperation can achieve for families of missing servicemen. That cooperation has now drawn fresh attention. After the recent summit between...
Built to hunt tanks and support ground troops, the People’s Liberation Army’s main attack helicopter is increasingly being prepared for operations at sea. Crews of the Z-10 are training to fly from ships – a shift that could give Beijing extra firepower in an amphibious assault on Taiwan. Manufactured by AVIC subsidiary the Changhe Aircraft Industries Corporation, the Z-10 entered service with the PLA Army in late 2010. It began documented shipboard trials in 2014, when Chinese navy imagery...
Troops from eight countries including China have been participating in joint military exercises in Russia. The exercise concluded on Saturday after conducting coordinated ground and air operations, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese troops have taken part in a mass multinational exercise in Russia featuring new anti-drone and ground robot systems – drills that Russian state media said “applied lessons” from the Ukraine war. The troops were among more than 47,000 military personnel involved in the Tsentr-2026 – or Centre-2026 – drills in the central western Chelyabinsk region from Monday until Saturday. The Russian Ministry of Defence said the strategic command-and-staff exercise applied combat lessons from the...
The US has conducted a non-nuclear underground experiment to enhance its ability to detect low-yield nuclear explosions that it explicitly linked with a test that Washington suspects China carried out in 2020 – an accusation Beijing denies. The US Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) conducted a “subsurface, non-nuclear chemical high-explosive” experiment at the Nevada National Security Site, which it said aimed to “increase the...
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) used water cannons to expel a mainland Chinese fishing vessel near Dongsha Island, authorities said on Friday. The incident occurred on October 1, 27 nautical miles east of the Taiwanese-controlled Dongsha Island, also called Pratas Island, in the South China Sea, the agency revealed. The CGA’s patrol vessel Yunlin directed its water cannon towards the fishing boat Jin Sha’s wheelhouse for about 90 seconds after initially spraying water into the air for...
China has set up several new institutions at military academies to train specialists in hi-tech and discipline inspection as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) works towards its centennial modernisation goals. The College of Unmanned and Intelligent Engineering, the College of Combat Support NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) and the College of Equipment Support NCOs were established within the PLA Army Engineering University on Wednesday. On the same day, the National Defence University (NDU),...
China has launched a rare air force support and training centre in Laos, the Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday. The China-Laos Joint Support and Training Centre and the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy are now in operation at the Ban Keun Airport, aiming to help the Laotian Air Force train its pilots, the ministry said in a statement. The two institutions will be jointly maintained and operated by both sides, the statement said, without providing details on what personnel or...
Beijing deployed its advanced WZ-7 high-altitude reconnaissance drone in the South China Sea for the first time during drills near the disputed Scarborough Shoal on Sunday. The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command announced on Sunday that it had conducted joint air and naval exercises in the waters and airspace around the shoal earlier in the day. In recent years, Scarborough Shoal – known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines – has been a major...
Chinese and US embassies in the Philippines exchanged sharp accusations on Sunday following Washington’s defence of its treaty ally after Thursday’s stand-off in the South China Sea. In a written statement issued on Sunday, the US embassy in Manila backed the Philippines and said Beijing’s “dangerous blocking and irresponsible manoeuvres” had threatened a collision and prevented a lawful resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal, one of the flashpoints in the South China Sea disputes. The...
Naha, Okinawa Pref., Sept. 27 (Jiji Press)--A Chinese marine research ship was spotted within Japan's exclusive economic zone off Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday, the Japan Coast Guard said. The research ship Kexue was seen dropping what appeared to be a wire into the sea within the EEZ about 72 kilometers north of the southernmost prefecture's Ishigaki Island, according to the 11th Regional C...
China‘s People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command conducted a joint naval and air training exercise in the waters and airspace around Scarborough Shoal on Sept. 27.
China’s next aircraft carrier could be longer than the US Navy’s largest warship, according to new satellite images that offer fresh clues about how far from home Beijing intends to operate its fleet – and the logistics it will need to do so. Captured on September 4, the images show that work has begun on the bulbous bow of the carrier under construction at Dalian Shipyard in northeastern China, defence intelligence company Janes reported last week. Measurements from the stern to the projected...
The US Air Force is shutting down a major research centre dedicated to open-source analysis of the Chinese military’s air, space, cyber and missile capabilities. The China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) said in a statement on Tuesday that Air University, the US Air Force institution under which it operates, had decided to close the institute, with all of its roles becoming unfunded from October 1. CASI said its employees would continue to work and get paid for now and that it expected to...
When state television aired footage in July of a Type 052D destroyer launching a YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile it signalled a significant expansion of the Chinese navy’s long-range strike power. The missile had previously been associated with China’s larger Type 055 destroyers. Showing it fired from a Type 052D – a class the People’s Liberation Army has built in far greater numbers – suggests Beijing may be able to spread the weapon well beyond its much smaller force of Type 055s. That...
China has upgraded its military base in Djibouti with communications equipment a US think tank says is “likely enhancing” the country’s ability to collect signals intelligence – potentially giving the PLA a window on foreign military operations in Djibouti and the wider Middle East. The Chinese facility sits within 16km (10 miles) of US, French, Italian and Japanese military bases, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in an unusually concentrated environment in...
Scientists in China have simulated a drone attack on one of the country’s major suspension bridges to determine the vulnerability of key transport hubs to modern warfare tactics. The researchers found that a drone carrying just 30kg (66lb) of TNT could trigger a bridge collapse if it detonated within inches of the main suspension cable at the point where it meets a support tower. The targeted bridge strikes that have featured in Russia’s war on Ukraine showed that warfare has shifted from mass...
In early July, China fired a test missile from a nuclear submarine into the South Pacific for the first time, a weapon capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Washington and Canberra were livid. The Pacific has long been the exclusive testing ground for such long-range missiles from the United States. How dare China! The reaction from Pacific island states was more measured. While leaders from Tuvalu, Palau and the Solomon Islands strongly criticised the test, the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum...
For more than a decade, China has deployed warships to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia. For much of that time, piracy in the region has been in sharp decline. Now, however, with attacks at their highest reported level since 2013 and other naval forces engaged in crises elsewhere, Beijing’s long-running escort mission is being tested. The renewed attacks and hijacking for ransom come as the US Navy focuses on operations connected to the war on Iran, and India sends ships towards the...
Six Chinese J-16 fighter jets arrived in Egypt last month for a joint exercise in what was the aircraft’s first known deployment in Africa. In Egyptian airspace, Chinese pilots had the rare chance to train against the Rafale, an advanced French-built fighter. The 6,000km (3,700-mile) deployment was completed in about nine hours with aerial refuelling, and tested China’s ability to move and support a combat-capable air package far from home. Analysts say the exercise reflects a decades-long...