Zircon from Australia could become fiercely contested by China and the United States, a geologist who works with the Chinese military has warned. While zircon is commonly valued as a gemstone, inside, it contains the metal zirconium. The metal can withstand very high temperatures, enabling ceramics, for example, to be heated to above 3,000 degrees…
In the second of a three-part series on mainland China’s increasing military presence around the self-governed island, Hayley Wong looks at how the People’s Liberation Army has been stepping up its efforts away from the Taiwan Strait. To city dwellers and tourists in Taiwan, the island’s eastern coast is all about pristine mountains, deep gorges,…
Dong’s return to the limelight came a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping renewed his call for the military to uphold both stability and loyalty to the Communist Party. The defence minister appeared in Shanghai at a security forum on the Gulf of Guinea, an area off the coast of West Africa. He conveyed China’s…
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has achieved major progress in modernising its training programme, as it seeks to boost combat readiness in modern warfare scenarios, according to the Chinese military’s official newspaper. “The transformation and upgrading of our military training has taken a significant step forward, as [we] explore and implement a new model for…
Washington has unveiled sweeping new regulations aimed at curbing China’s ability to develop advanced semiconductors critical to military technologies, artificial intelligence, and hi-tech weaponry. The measures, announced on Monday by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, impose export restrictions on 24 types of chipmaking equipment and three categories of software essential for semiconductor…
Chinese defence companies saw their lowest annual revenue growth in four years amid a domestic economic slowdown while global arms sales continued to grow, fuelled by demand from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, a Swedish think tank report said. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) annual report on the…
China’s top military official held security talks with his Pakistani counterpart on Wednesday amid joint counterterrorism drills in the wake of several attacks targeting Chinese interests and citizens in the South Asian country. Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), met Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Syed Asim Munir during a visit to…
The United States plans to deploy the US Marine Littoral Regiment equipped with a Himars rocket launcher system along the Nansei Islands close to Taiwan, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Monday. The deployment in the archipelago also known as the Ryukus will be part of a US-Japan operation plan to address a Taiwan contingency,…
Two warships from the People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet, including its largest amphibious assault vessel, arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday for a five-day visit. Two government fireboats gave the vessels – the destroyer Changsha and assault ship Hainan – a water salute in the morning as they entered Victoria Harbour through the East Lamma…
China and the US have deep misunderstandings about nuclear deterrence, according to international relations experts, setting the two powers up for potentially disastrous consequences. According to Jiang Tianjiao, an associate researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai, the two countries even have different definitions of deterrence – one of the most important concepts in military strategy….