Mainland China has equipped frontline troops facing Taiwan with a new missile, state media reported. The missile is believed to be an HQ-16F, which has comparable qualities to the US Patriot PAC2 and 3 systems. On Friday, state broadcaster CCTV aired footage of the 73rd Group Army’s first operational and live-fire assessment of the missile in the Gobi Desert. The unit, which forms part of the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command, had travelled thousands of kilometres from its base in...
The People’s Liberation Army said on Friday that it had tracked and monitored a Dutch warship during its passage through the Taiwan Strait, days after using electronic interference during a confrontation with the same vessel in the South China Sea. The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command said on social media that in less than two weeks, the shipborne helicopter of the Dutch frigate De Ruyter had “illegally intruded into the airspace over China’s Xisha [the Chinese name for the Paracel Islands] and...
The Chinese soldier who went viral for remaining completely still as the US presidential aircraft, Air Force One, taxied nearby during a recent visit to China by Donald Trump, has spoken about the rigours of his job. Liu Zhencheng, 23, who serves in the Beijing Armed Police Corps, was on duty when the US delegation touched down in Beijing. The armed police follow the rules of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), receive the same treatment as the PLA and obey the leadership of the Central Military...
As China marks the 20th anniversary of completing its first domestically developed high-thrust turbofan engine for fighter jets, the WS-10 – Woshan-10, meaning Turbofan-10 – continues its crucial role in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The WS-10 turbofan engine was code-named Taihang after the famous Chinese mountain range. The Taihang engine family serves as the backbone of the PLA’s major active combat fighters, powering fourth-generation jets such as the J-10C, the J-11B, the air force’s...
China’s top military command has issued ironclad measures to enforce discipline among senior officials of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the latest bid to further tighten controls over the leading ranks’ behaviour. The Central Military Commission (CMC), led by President Xi Jinping, issued the “measures on strengthening the education, management and supervision of senior military cadres” recently, according to state news agency Xinhua on Wednesday. The new rules distilled and applied “the...
China’s military mouthpiece has issued a rare warning that personnel may be insufficiently trained to operate new weapons, including unmanned systems, despite Beijing’s rapid advances in hardware. Some military units showed a low level of integration between personnel and equipment, Monday’s PLA Daily article cautioned, highlighting limited trust in systems and weak coordination between human operators and technology. It warned that without proper integration, “even advanced equipment may fail...
The People’s Liberation Army has accused Japan of taking a “dangerous gamble” with its plan to deploy satellite-aided drones to its southwestern islands near Taiwan. In a commentary on Sunday, the PLA Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese military, said that while Tokyo maintained that it was building a multilayered coastal defence system, the equipment had a “distinct offensive nature”. “While called a ‘shield’, it is in reality a ‘spear’,” it said. Japan’s Self-Defence Force plans to acquire...
The tough sentences handed to former defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu showed that Beijing had no tolerance for people with divided loyalties, the Chinese military’s official newspaper said on Friday. The PLA Daily commentary marks the first time an official outlet has accused Li of being disloyal. “The military wields the gun and there must be no one who harbours disloyalty to the party,” the editorial said. “As senior party and military leaders, Wei and Li showed a collapse of faith...