Chinese spies ‘very aggressive’ threat to US
China’s intelligence agencies are among the most aggressive at spying on the United States, followed by Cuban, Russian and Iranian spy agencies, The Washington Times quoted the US government’s top counterintelligence coordinator as saying.
Ya, not only do they just spy, but they break into homes and assault U.S. citizens.
Showing posts with label U.S.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S.. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Chinese in Space....
China goes back to space just weeks after catching the world by surprise with a SAT killing maneuver. The so called ASAT mission left a huge debris field and worse, according the the Japanese, violated international law. Although billed as a "friendly" GPS satellite, the new space monkey undoubtedly has Military applications...giving China another foot into the Space Battlefield. America and the world sleep....
GPS Daily
by Staff WritersXichang, China (XNA)
Feb 05, 2007
China successfully put a navigation satellite into orbit early Saturday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The carrier rocket, Long March 3-A, blasted off at 0:28 a.m. ( Beijing Time). The satellite separated from the rocket about 24 minutes later. Data from the Xi'an satellite monitoring center showed that the satellite had accurately entered its orbit.
Experts said the Beidou satellite navigation experimental system is operating well and has played a significant role in cartography, telecommunications, water conservation, transportation, fishery, prospecting, forest fire monitoring and national security.
Compass Satellite Navigation Experimental System (BeiDou-1)
It is China’s first space-based regional navigation and positioning network. The system provides all-weather, two-dimensional positioning data for both military and civilian users.
New Scientist.com
But things appear to have changed in Beijing. On 2 November, the country's official news agency Xinhua reported that Beidou would, from 2008, begin providing an "open" level of service, with 10-metre accuracy, in addition to its "authorised", encrypted military service.
Friday, February 2, 2007
HU's Sleeping With Fidel?
Want to see HU's been sleeping with the Cuban cut throat? There's a good article at the Jamestown Foundation you should check out. I should warn you though, like any good sexed up novel, it's borders on being a scandal.
THE JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION
Most important for China, Cuba is believed to have the world’s third largest nickel reserves and Beijing is pumping $500 million into doubling the island’s annual production
A related issue is Chinese involvement with Cuban military and intelligence.
....“we need to be alert to rapidly advancing Chinese capabilities, particularly in the fields of intelligence, communications and cyber-warfare, and their possible application in the region” (Congressional testimony, April 6, 2005).
A number one priority has been personnel and defense technologies for Cuba’s Air and Air Defense Forces (DAAFAR), since it might someday have to repel a U.S. invasion, the “mirror” on Taiwan. Among those trained in China and working with the Chinese is DAAFAR chief Pedro Mendiondo Gomez, an expert in air defense.
THE JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION
Most important for China, Cuba is believed to have the world’s third largest nickel reserves and Beijing is pumping $500 million into doubling the island’s annual production
A related issue is Chinese involvement with Cuban military and intelligence.
....“we need to be alert to rapidly advancing Chinese capabilities, particularly in the fields of intelligence, communications and cyber-warfare, and their possible application in the region” (Congressional testimony, April 6, 2005).
A number one priority has been personnel and defense technologies for Cuba’s Air and Air Defense Forces (DAAFAR), since it might someday have to repel a U.S. invasion, the “mirror” on Taiwan. Among those trained in China and working with the Chinese is DAAFAR chief Pedro Mendiondo Gomez, an expert in air defense.
A Burger For China
One thing is for certain, China understands massive corruption and they were willing to import the grotesque practice to the highest levels of the U.S. government. From front companies, tobribery, China plays nothing short of high stakes hard-ball. Their presence as a military power has come at the loss of U.S. technology and the exploitation of U.S. sensitive enterprises.
Berger's China work makes archive heist look tame
Two weeks back, the Chinese military shocked America by shooting one of China's aging satellites out of the sky with a ground-based missile. Old as the satellite may have been, it was still up 500 miles in space. This was a scarily impressive bit of saber rattling.
As it happens, no American played a greater role in the success of that shoot-down than the much-discussed chairman and founder of Stonebridge International, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.
In February 1996, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown was dispatched to New York to pick up checks from Schwartz in person. It was the president's way of signaling his obeisance. For all his failings, it disgusted Brown that Clinton had turned him into little more than a "bagman."
Schwartz did not make his donations in an informational vacuum. According to the New York Times, "February 1996" represented a moment of keen impasse between warring forces within the Clinton administration. With his generous support, Schwartz surely was hoping to breach the enemy's defenses.
The enemy in this case was his own Pentagon and intelligence community. Much to Schwartz's frustration, they were standing firm on the question of commercial satellites.
Given the vital technology contained therein, much of it secret, they had convinced Secretary of State Warren Christopher in October 1995 to keep the satellites on the so-called ''munitions list,'' an inventory of the nation's most sensitive military and intelligence-gathering equipment.
The president also faced strong resistance from the genuine liberals within the administration. In the margin of a December 1995 document, for example, senior adviser George Stephanopoulos scrawled a vulgar note strongly criticizing the president's China policy.
Soon after he returned from his New York rendezvous with Schwartz, Brown learned he would be meeting – by order of the White House – with a character by the name of Wang Jun. The sheer bravado of Wang Jun's petition and the brazenness of the Clintons in welcoming him leave one awestruck.
Wang Jun chaired Poly Technologies, a company controlled by the People's Liberation Army. According to a Rand Corporation report forced from the U.S. Department of Commerce by a federal lawsuit, one of Poly Technologies' profit centers was the "importation and distribution of semi-automatic rifles for the U.S. domestic market."
Between 1987 and 1993, the company and its affiliates sold more than $200 million worth of these guns in the United States. When Clinton piously signed into law the banning of certain semi-automatic weapons in 1994, Poly Technologies only profited. They exploited export loopholes to circumvent the ban and ultimately resorted to old-fashioned smuggling.
On the day of the Wang meeting, Feb. 6, 1996, Brown did not know about Wang Jun's arms trade. Brown only knew the meeting was to be about satellite export controls.
This makes sense as Wang also owned a huge stake in a Hong Kong satellite company. Brown's task was to assure the Chinese that America intended to be a most friendly trading partner, and if Wang ever had any problems dealing with the United States, he could call Brown directly at anytime.
Brown had little choice in the matter. Later that afternoon, the White House also insisted that he join Wang at an intimate "coffee" with President Clinton. It was an only-in-America kind of moment. Wang Jun, who had cut arms deals with Chinese allies in places like Libya, Iran, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, now found himself at a cordial private coffee with – of all people – the president of the United States.
This friendly meeting occurred less than four years after Clinton had excoriated the first President Bush for "coddling tyrants" in Beijing and conducting "business as usual with those who murdered freedom at Tiananmen Square." No matter.
Clinton pal Charlie Trie had greased the Wang Jun meeting with a $50,000 payment. To the president's humble credit, as the Thompson Committee would later report, he did admit that the meeting with the PLA arms dealer, Wang, was "clearly inappropriate."
The president did not apologize, however, for signing waivers for four more satellite launches by Chinese rockets on that same February day. The president approved these waivers despite reports the month before that China continued to export nuclear technology to Pakistan and missiles to Iran, the latter deal Wang was suspected of brokering.
Just a week or so after Wang Jun's excellent Washington adventure, a Chinese Long March 3B rocket carrying the Loral-built Intelsat 708 satellite crashed just after liftoff and killed or injured at least 60 people in a nearby village. This was the third Long March failure in the last three years involving U.S.-built satellite payloads.
The Pentagon welcomed the news of the Chinese failure. With the collapse of the Soviets, the People's Republic had emerged as America's most serious potential enemy, and its leaders weren't afraid to say so.
Just a few months earlier, in fact, a Chinese Military officer had warned American Ambassador Chas Freeman, "If you hit us now, we can hit back. So you will not make those threats [about Taiwan]." The officer then proffered the following not so cryptic caveat: "In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei."
American technical advice was making these Chinese boasts more than an empty threat. And yet in their relentless drive to raise money, the Clintons were fully prepared to broker that advice. In March 1996, Berger pressed on and managed to finesse a compromise that sent satellite control to Brown at Commerce and cost the Pentagon its veto power.
Feeling confident about his relationship with the president, Schwartz up and dispatched a Loral-led review team to China to assess the February 1996 failure of the Long March 3B rocket and suggest refinements.
The Cox Committee would later describe Schwartz's actions as "an unlicensed defense service for the PRC that resulted in the improvement of the reliability of the PRC's military rockets and ballistic missiles."
So serious was the offense that in 1998 the Criminal Division of the Justice Department launched an investigation. Incredibly, while the investigation was in process, Berger, now national security adviser, sent a memo to the president urging him to "waive the legislative restriction on the export to China of the communications satellites and related equipment for the Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) Chinasat 8 project."
This waiver would present a huge problem for the prosecution. Berger admitted as much: "Justice believes that a jury would not convict once it learned that the president had found SS/L's Chinasat 8 project to be in the national interest."
But Berger was not about to let that stop him: "We will take the firm position that this waiver does not exonerate or in any way prejudge SS/L with respect to its prior unauthorized transfers to China." Berger was blowing smoke, and he knew it. A waiver would make prosecution all but impossible.
The president could only issue a waiver, however, if it served America's "national interest." Berger made an almost comically specious case that it did, arguing satellite technology would give remote Chinese villagers access "to people and ideas in democratic societies." During these misbegotten years, one trembles at what the villagers might have learned about American democracy.
So much for the national interest. Ross then added the kicker, sure to win the president's heart. "Bernard Schwartz had intended to raise this issue with you at the Blair dinner, but missed you in the crowd." Schwartz knew he had a friend in the White House. The president approved the waiver, and the prosecution came to naught.
This story merits its own book, but what deserves immediate comment is the willingness of Berger and the Clintons to risk everything to keep the cash pipeline open. In his purloining of the National Archives, Berger risked everything once again. He and the Clintons have apparently come to take the major media's complicity for granted.
As for Schwartz, he kept the cash pipeline open and full. Before he was through, Schwartz and Loral would donate roughly $2 million to the Clinton cause. Whether Schwartz gave additional money or favors off the books is a question that deserves asking. Before his untimely death in April 1996, Brown was reporting that he had.
Wang Jun ran into problems of his own when on May 23, 1996, CNN breathlessly reported "the largest seizure of smuggled automatic weapons in U.S. history." The San Francisco Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had infiltrated a smuggling ring and confiscated 2,000 fully automatic AK-47 rifles imported from China.
The weapons were found on board a COSCO ship, the enterprise that had been trying to secure the Long Beach Naval Station. CNN traced the rifles to Wang's Poly Technologies.
Wang, however, had not wasted his investment. Someone in the know did the arms merchant a large favor by leaking the news of the BATF gun-smuggling investigation well before it was wrapped up. The Bay-area bust was premature. The BATF was not able to nail the operation's ringleaders. Like Sandy Berger himself, Wang Jun was freed up for further mischief.
We may never know what Berger stole from the National Archives or how much damage he did to the nation's battle against Islamic terrorists.
It is hard to imagine, though, that China would have developed the capacity to shoot satellites out of the sky – certainly not this quickly – without the help of its good friends in the White House. At the end of the day, this betrayal will make for an anxiety of much greater magnitude.
Berger's China work makes archive heist look tame
Two weeks back, the Chinese military shocked America by shooting one of China's aging satellites out of the sky with a ground-based missile. Old as the satellite may have been, it was still up 500 miles in space. This was a scarily impressive bit of saber rattling.
As it happens, no American played a greater role in the success of that shoot-down than the much-discussed chairman and founder of Stonebridge International, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.
In February 1996, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown was dispatched to New York to pick up checks from Schwartz in person. It was the president's way of signaling his obeisance. For all his failings, it disgusted Brown that Clinton had turned him into little more than a "bagman."
Schwartz did not make his donations in an informational vacuum. According to the New York Times, "February 1996" represented a moment of keen impasse between warring forces within the Clinton administration. With his generous support, Schwartz surely was hoping to breach the enemy's defenses.
The enemy in this case was his own Pentagon and intelligence community. Much to Schwartz's frustration, they were standing firm on the question of commercial satellites.
Given the vital technology contained therein, much of it secret, they had convinced Secretary of State Warren Christopher in October 1995 to keep the satellites on the so-called ''munitions list,'' an inventory of the nation's most sensitive military and intelligence-gathering equipment.
The president also faced strong resistance from the genuine liberals within the administration. In the margin of a December 1995 document, for example, senior adviser George Stephanopoulos scrawled a vulgar note strongly criticizing the president's China policy.
Soon after he returned from his New York rendezvous with Schwartz, Brown learned he would be meeting – by order of the White House – with a character by the name of Wang Jun. The sheer bravado of Wang Jun's petition and the brazenness of the Clintons in welcoming him leave one awestruck.
Wang Jun chaired Poly Technologies, a company controlled by the People's Liberation Army. According to a Rand Corporation report forced from the U.S. Department of Commerce by a federal lawsuit, one of Poly Technologies' profit centers was the "importation and distribution of semi-automatic rifles for the U.S. domestic market."
Between 1987 and 1993, the company and its affiliates sold more than $200 million worth of these guns in the United States. When Clinton piously signed into law the banning of certain semi-automatic weapons in 1994, Poly Technologies only profited. They exploited export loopholes to circumvent the ban and ultimately resorted to old-fashioned smuggling.
On the day of the Wang meeting, Feb. 6, 1996, Brown did not know about Wang Jun's arms trade. Brown only knew the meeting was to be about satellite export controls.
This makes sense as Wang also owned a huge stake in a Hong Kong satellite company. Brown's task was to assure the Chinese that America intended to be a most friendly trading partner, and if Wang ever had any problems dealing with the United States, he could call Brown directly at anytime.
Brown had little choice in the matter. Later that afternoon, the White House also insisted that he join Wang at an intimate "coffee" with President Clinton. It was an only-in-America kind of moment. Wang Jun, who had cut arms deals with Chinese allies in places like Libya, Iran, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, now found himself at a cordial private coffee with – of all people – the president of the United States.
This friendly meeting occurred less than four years after Clinton had excoriated the first President Bush for "coddling tyrants" in Beijing and conducting "business as usual with those who murdered freedom at Tiananmen Square." No matter.
Clinton pal Charlie Trie had greased the Wang Jun meeting with a $50,000 payment. To the president's humble credit, as the Thompson Committee would later report, he did admit that the meeting with the PLA arms dealer, Wang, was "clearly inappropriate."
The president did not apologize, however, for signing waivers for four more satellite launches by Chinese rockets on that same February day. The president approved these waivers despite reports the month before that China continued to export nuclear technology to Pakistan and missiles to Iran, the latter deal Wang was suspected of brokering.
Just a week or so after Wang Jun's excellent Washington adventure, a Chinese Long March 3B rocket carrying the Loral-built Intelsat 708 satellite crashed just after liftoff and killed or injured at least 60 people in a nearby village. This was the third Long March failure in the last three years involving U.S.-built satellite payloads.
The Pentagon welcomed the news of the Chinese failure. With the collapse of the Soviets, the People's Republic had emerged as America's most serious potential enemy, and its leaders weren't afraid to say so.
Just a few months earlier, in fact, a Chinese Military officer had warned American Ambassador Chas Freeman, "If you hit us now, we can hit back. So you will not make those threats [about Taiwan]." The officer then proffered the following not so cryptic caveat: "In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei."
American technical advice was making these Chinese boasts more than an empty threat. And yet in their relentless drive to raise money, the Clintons were fully prepared to broker that advice. In March 1996, Berger pressed on and managed to finesse a compromise that sent satellite control to Brown at Commerce and cost the Pentagon its veto power.
Feeling confident about his relationship with the president, Schwartz up and dispatched a Loral-led review team to China to assess the February 1996 failure of the Long March 3B rocket and suggest refinements.
The Cox Committee would later describe Schwartz's actions as "an unlicensed defense service for the PRC that resulted in the improvement of the reliability of the PRC's military rockets and ballistic missiles."
So serious was the offense that in 1998 the Criminal Division of the Justice Department launched an investigation. Incredibly, while the investigation was in process, Berger, now national security adviser, sent a memo to the president urging him to "waive the legislative restriction on the export to China of the communications satellites and related equipment for the Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) Chinasat 8 project."
This waiver would present a huge problem for the prosecution. Berger admitted as much: "Justice believes that a jury would not convict once it learned that the president had found SS/L's Chinasat 8 project to be in the national interest."
But Berger was not about to let that stop him: "We will take the firm position that this waiver does not exonerate or in any way prejudge SS/L with respect to its prior unauthorized transfers to China." Berger was blowing smoke, and he knew it. A waiver would make prosecution all but impossible.
The president could only issue a waiver, however, if it served America's "national interest." Berger made an almost comically specious case that it did, arguing satellite technology would give remote Chinese villagers access "to people and ideas in democratic societies." During these misbegotten years, one trembles at what the villagers might have learned about American democracy.
So much for the national interest. Ross then added the kicker, sure to win the president's heart. "Bernard Schwartz had intended to raise this issue with you at the Blair dinner, but missed you in the crowd." Schwartz knew he had a friend in the White House. The president approved the waiver, and the prosecution came to naught.
This story merits its own book, but what deserves immediate comment is the willingness of Berger and the Clintons to risk everything to keep the cash pipeline open. In his purloining of the National Archives, Berger risked everything once again. He and the Clintons have apparently come to take the major media's complicity for granted.
As for Schwartz, he kept the cash pipeline open and full. Before he was through, Schwartz and Loral would donate roughly $2 million to the Clinton cause. Whether Schwartz gave additional money or favors off the books is a question that deserves asking. Before his untimely death in April 1996, Brown was reporting that he had.
Wang Jun ran into problems of his own when on May 23, 1996, CNN breathlessly reported "the largest seizure of smuggled automatic weapons in U.S. history." The San Francisco Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had infiltrated a smuggling ring and confiscated 2,000 fully automatic AK-47 rifles imported from China.
The weapons were found on board a COSCO ship, the enterprise that had been trying to secure the Long Beach Naval Station. CNN traced the rifles to Wang's Poly Technologies.
Wang, however, had not wasted his investment. Someone in the know did the arms merchant a large favor by leaking the news of the BATF gun-smuggling investigation well before it was wrapped up. The Bay-area bust was premature. The BATF was not able to nail the operation's ringleaders. Like Sandy Berger himself, Wang Jun was freed up for further mischief.
We may never know what Berger stole from the National Archives or how much damage he did to the nation's battle against Islamic terrorists.
It is hard to imagine, though, that China would have developed the capacity to shoot satellites out of the sky – certainly not this quickly – without the help of its good friends in the White House. At the end of the day, this betrayal will make for an anxiety of much greater magnitude.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Is China Testing U.S. Resolve?
The past 12 months has highlighted China's growing threat to the U.S. As companies continue to invest in China and business booms, the Chinese military is testing the U.S. resolve. A close look at China's actions reveals a detailed, well thought-out and calculated policy of testing U.S. waters. From a very public perspective, they have our number. How will the U.S. respond?
China is stirring: why now?
In the last few weeks and months, two important new military capabilities were apparently demonstrated by China to show the US new - and some say troubling - Chinese military powers. First, in October 2006, a Chinese Song Class diesel electric submarine crept covertly to within five nautical miles of the USS Kitty Hawk, a US navy aircraft carrier.
This one act said to many naval observers two things: that China intends to patrol further than ever from its shores and that China now can effectively evade US navy anti-submarine warfare systems and place warships in a position to quickly eliminate the US navy’s capital ships.
Then on January 11, 2007, China launched a land-based rocket that intercepted and destroyed an old Chinese satellite. This one act indicated that China may have the early stages of a “space denial” weapon system for use against the US in a crisis or war.
Both incidents followed a period of decreased intelligence gathering by the US against China.
Military intelligence officials told us that the US Pacific Commander, Admiral William “Fox” Fallon, had restricted US intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing. Last week the White House announced that Admiral Fallon is now the President’s nominee to succeed General John Abazaid as the Commander of the Central Command.
China is “feeling out” the international response to many of its new initiatives. For many years the US Pentagon has asked that China become more open and forthcoming about its military plans and investments. Just recently, China has become more “transparent” about its military spending and its priorities.
In his annual threat assessment, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress on January 11: “Several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten US space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.”
On the same day, the Chinese destroyed an ageing weather satellite using what’s known as a kinetic-kill vehicle sent into space aboard a Chinese ballistic missile. Kinetic-kill vehicles were an integral part of President Reagan’s dream of protecting the US against ballistic missile attacks: a plan critics mocked and still do.
Another piece of troubling news from China: China’s military is delaying the US visit of its strategic nuclear forces commander despite a promise by Chinese President Hu Jintao last year that the general would hold talks with the US Strategic Command leader.
China is stirring: why now?
In the last few weeks and months, two important new military capabilities were apparently demonstrated by China to show the US new - and some say troubling - Chinese military powers. First, in October 2006, a Chinese Song Class diesel electric submarine crept covertly to within five nautical miles of the USS Kitty Hawk, a US navy aircraft carrier.
This one act said to many naval observers two things: that China intends to patrol further than ever from its shores and that China now can effectively evade US navy anti-submarine warfare systems and place warships in a position to quickly eliminate the US navy’s capital ships.
Then on January 11, 2007, China launched a land-based rocket that intercepted and destroyed an old Chinese satellite. This one act indicated that China may have the early stages of a “space denial” weapon system for use against the US in a crisis or war.
Both incidents followed a period of decreased intelligence gathering by the US against China.
Military intelligence officials told us that the US Pacific Commander, Admiral William “Fox” Fallon, had restricted US intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing. Last week the White House announced that Admiral Fallon is now the President’s nominee to succeed General John Abazaid as the Commander of the Central Command.
China is “feeling out” the international response to many of its new initiatives. For many years the US Pentagon has asked that China become more open and forthcoming about its military plans and investments. Just recently, China has become more “transparent” about its military spending and its priorities.
In his annual threat assessment, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress on January 11: “Several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten US space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.”
On the same day, the Chinese destroyed an ageing weather satellite using what’s known as a kinetic-kill vehicle sent into space aboard a Chinese ballistic missile. Kinetic-kill vehicles were an integral part of President Reagan’s dream of protecting the US against ballistic missile attacks: a plan critics mocked and still do.
Another piece of troubling news from China: China’s military is delaying the US visit of its strategic nuclear forces commander despite a promise by Chinese President Hu Jintao last year that the general would hold talks with the US Strategic Command leader.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
What is China Planning for the U.S.?
By in large Americans remain blind to the Chinese threat. While the CHICOM military ratchets up rhetoric about how to beat the U.S., paints U.S. Satellites with lasers, and launches and armed sub to stalk the U.S. Fleet, American remains on a honeymoon cloud, sipping on the sweet wine of economic benefit. Blinded by financial gain, we appear to be so financially intoxicated that the CHICOMS growing threat to our National Security has become an after thought. What is China planning for the U.S.?
Asia Times
Photo Credit
A noted Chinese theorist on modern warfare, Chang Mengxiong, compared China's form of fighting to "a Chinese boxer with a keen knowledge of vital body points who can bring an opponent to his knees with a minimum of movements". It is like key acupuncture points in ancient Chinese medicine. Puncture one vital point and the whole anatomy is affected. If America ever goes to war with China, say, over Taiwan, then America should be prepared for the following "acupuncture points" in its anatomy to be "punctured". Each of the vital points can bring America to its knees with a minimum of effort.
I Electro-magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack
An EMP attack will damage all electrical grids on the US mainland. It will disable computers and other similar electronic devices with microchips. Most businesses and industries will shut down. The entire US economy will practically grind to a halt. Satellites within line of sight of the EMP burst will also be damaged, adversely affecting military command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR).
2 Cyber attack
China's new concept of a "people's war" includes IT warriors coming, not only from its military more than 2-million strong, but from the general citizenry of some 1.3 billion people. If we add the hackers and information warriors from Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria and other countries sympathetic to China, the cyber attack on the US would be formidable indeed. So, if a major conflict erupts between China and America, more than a few dozen laptops will be engaged to hack America's military establishment; banking system; stock exchange; defense industries; telecommunication system; power grids; water system; oil and gas pipeline system; air traffic and train traffic control systems; C4ISR system, ballistic missile system, and other systems that prop up the American way of life.
3 Interdiction of US foreign oil supply
A single blow from Iran or China or Russia, or a combination of the three at the Strait of Hormuz can paralyze America. In addition, Chinese and Russian submarines can stop the flow of oil to the US and Japan by interdicting oil tanker traffic coming from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. On the other hand, US naval supremacy will have minimal effect on China's oil supply because it is already connected to Kazakhstan with a pipeline and will soon be connected to Russia and Iran as well. One wonders: what will be the price of oil if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz. It will surely drive oil prices sky high. Prolonged high oil prices can, in turn, trigger inflation in the US and a sharp decline of the dollar, possibly even a dollar free-fall. The collapse of the dollar will have a serious impact on the entire US economy.
4 Attack on the US dollar
China is now the biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves in the world, accumulating $941 billion as of June 30 and expected to exceed a trillion dollars by the end of 2006 - a first in world history. A decision by China to shift a major portion of its reserve to the euro or the yen or gold could trigger other central banks to follow suit. Nobody would want to be left behind holding a bag full of dollars rapidly turning worthless. The herd psychology would be very difficult to control in this case because national economic survival would be at stake.
5 Diplomatic isolation
The US-led war in Iraq was a tactical victory for the US initially, but has resulted in strategic defeat overall. The Iraq war caused the US to lose its principal allies in Europe and be isolated, despised and hated in many parts of the world. Without too many friends and allies, the US is likened to an "emperor with no clothes". So in a major conflict between America and China, isolated America cannot possibly win against a global united front led by China and Russia.
Asia Times
Photo Credit
A noted Chinese theorist on modern warfare, Chang Mengxiong, compared China's form of fighting to "a Chinese boxer with a keen knowledge of vital body points who can bring an opponent to his knees with a minimum of movements". It is like key acupuncture points in ancient Chinese medicine. Puncture one vital point and the whole anatomy is affected. If America ever goes to war with China, say, over Taiwan, then America should be prepared for the following "acupuncture points" in its anatomy to be "punctured". Each of the vital points can bring America to its knees with a minimum of effort.
I Electro-magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack
An EMP attack will damage all electrical grids on the US mainland. It will disable computers and other similar electronic devices with microchips. Most businesses and industries will shut down. The entire US economy will practically grind to a halt. Satellites within line of sight of the EMP burst will also be damaged, adversely affecting military command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR).
2 Cyber attack
China's new concept of a "people's war" includes IT warriors coming, not only from its military more than 2-million strong, but from the general citizenry of some 1.3 billion people. If we add the hackers and information warriors from Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria and other countries sympathetic to China, the cyber attack on the US would be formidable indeed. So, if a major conflict erupts between China and America, more than a few dozen laptops will be engaged to hack America's military establishment; banking system; stock exchange; defense industries; telecommunication system; power grids; water system; oil and gas pipeline system; air traffic and train traffic control systems; C4ISR system, ballistic missile system, and other systems that prop up the American way of life.
3 Interdiction of US foreign oil supply
A single blow from Iran or China or Russia, or a combination of the three at the Strait of Hormuz can paralyze America. In addition, Chinese and Russian submarines can stop the flow of oil to the US and Japan by interdicting oil tanker traffic coming from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. On the other hand, US naval supremacy will have minimal effect on China's oil supply because it is already connected to Kazakhstan with a pipeline and will soon be connected to Russia and Iran as well. One wonders: what will be the price of oil if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz. It will surely drive oil prices sky high. Prolonged high oil prices can, in turn, trigger inflation in the US and a sharp decline of the dollar, possibly even a dollar free-fall. The collapse of the dollar will have a serious impact on the entire US economy.
4 Attack on the US dollar
China is now the biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves in the world, accumulating $941 billion as of June 30 and expected to exceed a trillion dollars by the end of 2006 - a first in world history. A decision by China to shift a major portion of its reserve to the euro or the yen or gold could trigger other central banks to follow suit. Nobody would want to be left behind holding a bag full of dollars rapidly turning worthless. The herd psychology would be very difficult to control in this case because national economic survival would be at stake.
5 Diplomatic isolation
The US-led war in Iraq was a tactical victory for the US initially, but has resulted in strategic defeat overall. The Iraq war caused the US to lose its principal allies in Europe and be isolated, despised and hated in many parts of the world. Without too many friends and allies, the US is likened to an "emperor with no clothes". So in a major conflict between America and China, isolated America cannot possibly win against a global united front led by China and Russia.
Monday, January 22, 2007
U.S. has no defense for Chinese Anti-Satellite?
Check out the buzz out Defense Tech.org. The first paragraph lays out what many have been fearing, the U.S. may be unable to do anything against a Chinese satellite. Hey, that's what friends are for right?
China Space Attack: Unstoppable
China has shown it can destroy a satellite in orbit. What could the U.S. do to stop Beijing, if it decided to attack an American orbiter next? Short answer: nothing.
It takes about 20 minutes to fire a ballistic missile into space, and have its "kill vehicle" strike a satellite at hypersonic speed -- over 15,000 miles per hour -- in low-earth orbit. That's far too quick for anything in the American arsenal to respond, in time. There's "no possibility of shielding" a relatively-fragile satellite against such a strike. "And it is impractical [for a satellite] to carry enough fuel to maneuver away even if you had specific and timely warning of an attack," Center for Defense Information analyst Theresea Hitchens notes.
China Space Attack: Unstoppable
China has shown it can destroy a satellite in orbit. What could the U.S. do to stop Beijing, if it decided to attack an American orbiter next? Short answer: nothing.
It takes about 20 minutes to fire a ballistic missile into space, and have its "kill vehicle" strike a satellite at hypersonic speed -- over 15,000 miles per hour -- in low-earth orbit. That's far too quick for anything in the American arsenal to respond, in time. There's "no possibility of shielding" a relatively-fragile satellite against such a strike. "And it is impractical [for a satellite] to carry enough fuel to maneuver away even if you had specific and timely warning of an attack," Center for Defense Information analyst Theresea Hitchens notes.
Hot analysis on Chinese Satellite Threat.
The good people over at China Confidential have put together an excellent analysis of the Chinese Anti-Satellite threat, Chinese Propaganda, and deeper issues behind the latest satellite test. I've attached a few excerpts from their blog for you.
China's Slap-in-the-Face Satellite Strike
For the United States, China's destruction of one of its own obsolete weather satellites is at a minimum a serious slap in the face by an increasingly nationalistic regime bent on replacing the US as the global Hegemon.
The satellite intercept by a medium-range KT-1 ballistic missile belies Beijing's peacefully rising propaganda and the wishful thinking--or outright disinformation--on the part of the fawning US State Department that China is becoming a so-called responsible stakeholder in the international community.
The brazen blast also mocks the absurd argument of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that China's economic, political--and even military--rise is somehow in the US national interest. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The satellite strike could be the tip of the iceberg, or missile, if you will. Worse news is yet to come. The destroyed orbiter occupied a region of space only around 500 miles high--known as low-Earth orbit--which is the lowest of the available satellite orbits. Low-Earth orbit is favored for spy satellites because it gives the military the best possible images of the ground.
"China's action makes the whole world suspect that China's self-claimed 'peaceful emergence' is deception and propaganda," Taiwan government spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan said. "Deep in its bones, China want to become a military superpower and dominate the region by force."
Ironically, in written testimony submitted to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the same day China conducted its anti-satellite test, the country was named alongside Russia as "the primary states of concern regarding military space and counter-space programs" by US Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Said Maples: "Several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten US space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles."
For the United States, China's destruction of one of its own obsolete weather satellites is at a minimum a serious slap in the face by an increasingly nationalistic regime bent on replacing the US as the global Hegemon.
The satellite intercept by a medium-range KT-1 ballistic missile belies Beijing's peacefully rising propaganda and the wishful thinking--or outright disinformation--on the part of the fawning US State Department that China is becoming a so-called responsible stakeholder in the international community.
The brazen blast also mocks the absurd argument of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that China's economic, political--and even military--rise is somehow in the US national interest. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The satellite strike could be the tip of the iceberg, or missile, if you will. Worse news is yet to come. The destroyed orbiter occupied a region of space only around 500 miles high--known as low-Earth orbit--which is the lowest of the available satellite orbits. Low-Earth orbit is favored for spy satellites because it gives the military the best possible images of the ground.
"China's action makes the whole world suspect that China's self-claimed 'peaceful emergence' is deception and propaganda," Taiwan government spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan said. "Deep in its bones, China want to become a military superpower and dominate the region by force."
Ironically, in written testimony submitted to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the same day China conducted its anti-satellite test, the country was named alongside Russia as "the primary states of concern regarding military space and counter-space programs" by US Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Said Maples: "Several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten US space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles."
China Attempted To Blind U.S. Satellites With a Laser
In late 2006, China painted U.S. Satellites with a high power laser.... odd behavior for a "close friend".China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory in what experts see as a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft, according to sources.
According to top officials, however, China not only has the capability, but has exercised it. It is not clear when China first used lasers to attack American satellites. Sources would only say that there have been several tests over the past several years.
Photo from: Defense Tech.org
Pentagon officials, however, have kept quiet regarding China’s efforts as part of a Bush administration policy to keep from angering Beijing, which is a leading U.S. trading partner and seen as key to dealing with onerous states like North Korea and Iran.
"China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory in... a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft," Defense News is reporting. And, at least in theory, those lasers might be able temporarily take offline America's most powerful orbiting spies, like the giant electro-optical Keyhole spacecraft or radar-based satellites like the Lacrosse.Defense Tech.org
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