Japan documents intrusion by Chinese military aircraft - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick

The Japanese ministry of defense (MoD) has launched a website documenting intrusions by Chinese military aircraft in the East China Sea, writes defense analyst Wendell Minnick in Defense News. China´s activities have increased rapidly, the website says.

Wendell Minnick:

The website points to intrusions by Chinese State Oceanic Administration (SOA) aircraft, such as the fixed-wing Y-12, and the Chinese military’s H-6 bomber, Y-8 airborne early warning aircraft, and Tu-154 intelligence collection aircraft. 

The website does not confirm, but only suspects, intrusions by Chinese fighter aircraft, listing the Sukhoi Su-27 and Chengdu J-10 fighters and Xian JH-7 fighter-bomber as possible offenders. 

The number of fighter sorties, including “presumptions,” by Japanese fighter aircraft went from negligible in 2001 to around 300 in 2012. To be fair, the number of new radar and intelligence collection stations built over the past several years along the Ryukyus Island chain, such as Seburi-yama Mountain on Kyushu Island, Fukue-jima Island and Miyako-jima Island, provide better surveillance of the East China Sea. 

There is the J/FLR-4 facility on Miyako-jima Island, 200 kilometers east of the Senkaku Islands. The J/FLR-4, activated in 2009, is a panoramic very-high-frequency (VHF), ultrahigh-frequency and super-high-frequency intercept signal intelligence/electronic intelligence (SIGINT/ELINT) system. 

There is another J/FLR-4 base on Fukue-jima and just north of Okinawa is a SIGINT and COMINT station on Kikaijima Island. In operation since 2006, it consists of a large, indigenously designed, circularly disposed antenna array for VHF and high-frequency direction finding. On Google Earth, this facility resembles a crop circle.

You can find the MoD website here.

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US sanctions as Turkey picks Chinese defense system - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick

The Turkish preference for a Chinese air defense system rocked the Western defense industry, and now US firms are hitting back, writes defense analyst Wendell Minnick in Defense News. 

Wendell Minnick:

Aselsan, Turkey’s biggest defense company, has become the first casualty of what could become a series of US sanctions on Turkish firms slated to help build an air defense system with the Chinese. 

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a US investment bank, has pulled out of a joint bid to advise Aselsan on the company’s second listing on Istanbul’s stock exchange, citing Turkey’s contract negotiations with China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp. (CPMIEC) to build the country’s first long-range anti-missile air-defense system. 

An Aselsan official confirmed Merrill Lynch’s withdrawal from a joint bid with Turkey’s Halkbank, but shrugged off the move. 

“That’s hardly a blow to our planned listing,” he said. “We’ll go ahead ... possibly selecting another bank for the task.”

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Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting r conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.  

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Taiwan's early warning radar watches China - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick

The most powerful early warning radar (EWR) is based on Taiwan, and admired by everybody apart from China, writes defense expert Wendell Minnick in Defense News. 

Wendell Minnick:

Taiwan’s early warning radar (EWR) on the island’s west coast has gained the respect of just about everyone in the region — except China. And for good reason, sources say. It is the most “powerful radar in the world,” said a Taiwan defense industry source. 

“Even the Americans don’t have anything close,” he said. 

Sources debate the potential power of the radar, based on Leshan Mountain near the city of Hsinchu, but all agree it is a multifaceted, ultra high frequency (UHF) radar capable of tracking air-breathing targets — including cruise missiles — and ballistic missiles at 3,000 kilometers, depending on the target. 

“It’s more of an intelligence collection system than a ballistic missile defense warning system,” said one US defense industry source. “Taiwan can see almost all of China’s significant Air Force sorties and exercises from this radar.”

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Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

The +China Weekly Hangout will have open office hours coming Thursday, where you can drop in to discuss any issue, but where we want to focus on technical problems you have or we have had with hangouts. The development of this Google tool is going pretty fast, offering every week more new bells and whistles, but also with regularly new challenges. You can join us on Thursday 28 November 10pm Beijing time, 3pm CET (Europe) or 9am EST (US/Canada).

You can read our announcement here, or join the event by watching, commenting or actively joining at our event page.

+Steve Barru, +李洛傑 and +Fons Tuinstra wrapped up on the +China Weekly Hangout on October 3 the news on Shanghai's Free Trade Zone, and end in a not-so positive mood about what this new zone is actually going to do.

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Meeting of Asian military: many words, no deaths - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick

Just before Xi Jinping and Barack Obama sat down for their California summit, the region's military representatives sat down in Singapore for the 12th Shangri-la Dialogues. Our defense analyst Wendell Minnick saw a classic Shakespeare act deploying, although with less drama than in the past, he writes in Defense News. 

Wendell Minnick

Just as Shakespeare’s comedic play ends joyfully with multiple marriages and no deaths, this year’s Shangri-La lacked any real sense of crisis, minus cyber, as China and the US held their tongues over the recent Chinese military incursion into India, challenges over the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, disputes over exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and Beijing’s territorial disputes in the South China Sea. 

Though tough talk emerged from some members of the Chinese delegation, the dialogue lacked the normal hawkish rhetoric from delegates of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), although some comments did stretch credulity. 

Lt. Gen. Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of the PLA General Staff, told attendees during his speech, “China has never taken foreign expansion and military conquering as a state policy.” 

Qi made no mention of China’s 1950 invasion of Tibet, 1962 invasion of India, 1979 invasion of Vietnam or threats made to invade Taiwan. Chinese delegates did challenge allegations of wrongdoing made by the US and others, but refrained from the typical outbursts of the past. 

“In general, they wanted to tone down in the wake of the Obama-Xi talk … so as to create a better atmosphere,” said Arthur Ding, a cross-strait military affairs expert at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.

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Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

+China Weekly Hangout 

Negotiating trade agreements, was the theme of last week's China Weekly Hangout. A discussion on the way the EU and the US are dealing (of fail to deal) with China, with negotiation expert +Andrew Hupert from New York, Swiss lawyer +Nathan KAISER from Taipei and political analyst +Steve Barru from Denver, Colorado. Moderated by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

Chinese labor in Africa is the subject of the China Weekly Hangout on Thursday 13 June, following the story of over 124 Chinese gold miners, who got arrested in Ghana last week. Our expert panelist will be +Eric Olander of the China Africa Project, and you can read our announcement here. You canregister for participation at our event page.

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Taiwan turns to Europe for heli's - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick

As a first sign Europe might be turning away from its weapon embargo against Taiwan by deploying  three Eurocopter EC225 helicopters, sending a message to Washington, writes defense analyst Wendell Minnick in Defense News.

Wendell Minnick:

The three SAR helicopters will go into service in July during a ceremony presided over by Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou. The procurement is the first European defense sale to Taiwan in two decades and sources in the MND complain that procuring the EC225 sends the wrong message to Washington, which has continued to provide arms to Taiwan despite threats by Beijing. 

Europe has declined to sell weaponized platforms to Taiwan due to pressure from China. The EC225 SAR falls outside that restriction and Europe has shunned defense deals to Taiwan for fear of angering China, a far more potent market for European aerospace and non-offensive defense systems. 

Savaged by economic problems, the European Union appears ready to lift the arms embargo placed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

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Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do yo need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.