May 18, 2007:
China is believed to be working on
targeting systems for its ballistic missiles, that would enable them to seek
out and hit aircraft carriers. Such sensors would use infrared (heat seeking)
technology. This sort of thing had been discussed for decades, but China
appears to be putting together tactics, and missile systems, that could make
this work. The key is having multiple sensor systems that can find the general
location of the carrier, before launching the ballistic missile (like a DF-21,
with a range of 2,100 kilometers).
Chinas extensive overseas espionage network has been caught trying to
steal submarine technology, indicating that, after decades of effort, China is
determined to develop its own, world class, sub fleet.
May 16, 2007:
Taiwan held a major defense exercise, using army, naval and air forces,
and firing several different types of missiles.
Some of them failed, but what was most obvious was the large number of
advanced system Taiwan has, evidence of what Taiwan has gotten for the billion
dollars (plus) of defense imports it has brought in each year, for the last
decade. Next year, Taiwan will be spending three percent of GDP on defense, up
from 2.2 percent in 2006.
May 15, 2007: China is calling in favors with
Pakistan, and demanding that twenty Islamic radicals from western China, who
have been hiding out in Pakistans tribal areas, be found and sent back to
China. This won't be easy to do, as there are lots of Islamic radicals up in
them hills, including Osama bin Laden, and getting them out ain't easy. China
is putting Pakistan on the spot with this demand, meaning that failure to
comply could be used as a reason to not help Pakistan with some future weapons
sales or development project.
May 6, 2007: For thousands of year, densely
populated China has been the source of new epidemic diseases. Public health is
still rather primitive, and the government does not like to share health news
with foreigners. But what is known is that there are epidemics in China. Some
are old standbys, like Mumps are still killing on a large scale. Others are new
and unknown, like an epidemic that is currently killing millions of swine in
southeastern China. In the past, many major infectious diseases got their start
in Chinese swine, and then leaped to humans. All this is a biological weapon
that is in China, but not really controlled by China.