China Watch, PLA/PLAN/PLAAF updates

Rice woos China over US naval buildup


BEIJING—China is getting edgy over a new US military strategy aimed at projecting force around the globe and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s visit last week was an attempt to calm Beijing down, analysts said.

Rice’s trip on Thursday and Friday came as the US military was rolling out an unprecedented deployment of naval power in the Pacific Ocean in what is officially being termed a military exercise, they said.

“It is an unprecedented show of force and a return to gunboat diplomacy,” Andrew Tam, a security expert at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told Agence France-Presse.

“The United States is sending the message that any threat to peace and stability in Northeast Asia will not be tolerated.

“It is a signal to North Korea, but particularly to the Chinese. The carrier groups are sent as an affirmation of US support of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the current status of Taiwan.”

The US navy announced in June that three aircraft-carrier battle groups were already in the Pacific and four others were being deployed for the war games called “Summer Pulse 2004.”

According to the US naval websites, the deployment is a part of the Fleet Response Plan, which is aimed at increasing force preparedness and establishing the ability to immediately provide significant combat power in a crisis anywhere in the world.

It comes with Beijing rattling sabers over Taiwan since pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian was inaugurated for his second term on May 20, and with China due to start this month massive amphibious military exercises on mainland-ruled islands in the Taiwan Straits.

In her visit, Rice reiterated Washington’s respect for Beijing’s “one-China policy” and its opposition to Taiwan independence, while urging China to push forward efforts at resolving the simmering issue over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

In 1996, the United States sent two aircraft carrier groups to the Taiwan Strait after China tested ballistic missiles by lobbing them off shore from Taiwan’s major ports.

Link

Well they should be, 7 carrier strike groups exercising at the same time and in area is a pretty awesome show of force.

China will use military drills this month to demonstrate its ability to dominate air space over Taiwan, an essential element in any invasion of the island, according to state media and analysts.

Joint sea, land and air drills will take place this month at Dongshan Island, just 150 nautical miles away from Taiwan’s Penghu Islands, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed.

“This year, aside from missile brigades, tank brigades, marine brigades, warships and submarines, all advanced weapons will be used in the exercise,” an article in the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said.

In previous exercises, the emphasis has been on crossing the Taiwan Strait by ship for amphibious landings backed by missile attacks.

“But in fact, the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] realized in 1999 that the launching of an amphibious landing offensive on Taiwan would be hindered if mastery of the air and the sea were not gained,” said the newspaper.

“That is why the PLA had decided to change its emphasis on this drill.”

It said that instead “the PLA will likely put emphasis on the seizure of air dominance over Taiwan in the 2004 military Dongshan Island exercise.”

Military experts cited in the paper said this implied an “active” and “offensive” military drill.

Independent analysts said the focus on air dominance was a message that China was now in a position to attack Taiwan, should it want to.

“The emphasis on air supremacy is central to any PLA offensive operations in the Taiwan Strait, but the Taiwan Air Force has traditionally held the upper hand in this area,” said one analyst.

“But as the PLA Air Force has made rapid improvements in this area with significant acquisitions of Russian fighters and attendant weapons packages . . . the air balance is now beginning to gradually swing in China’s favor.”

“This article clearly suggests that the Chinese will use the Dongshan exercise as a forum to show that it can now succeed in gaining air dominance against the Taiwanese, which is a major step in making its threats of the use of military force, including an invasion, more credible.”

Last month, Taiwan said that its air force would practice emergency landings on a freeway for the first time in 25 years amid renewed tension with China.

The scenario of the drill is that Taiwan’s airports may be destroyed should war break out with China, and that freeways may be used for emergency landings, Defense Minister Lee Jye said.

The People’s Daily report did not reveal how many soldiers would take part in the exercises, but a pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper said 18,000 troops would be involved.

More than 100,000 troops were involved in a similar drill in 2001.

Tension between Beijing and Taipei has been heightened since Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian was reelected this year, with China fearful his pro-independence moves are aimed at gaining formal independence.

Beijing has vowed to go to war with Taiwan in the event of it moving toward independence.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification. The island has been separated since the end of a civil war in 1949.
-- Agence France-Presse

LINK

Channelnewsasia

WASHINGTON : The United States said it would continue selling weapons to Taiwan, shrugging off a warning from Beijing that any improvement in US-China relations hinged on America cutting military links with the island state.

Chinese embassy spokesman Sun Weide said on Tuesday that Beijing was "gravely concerned" over recent US moves on the Taiwan question, pointing out that the situation was "quite critical," particularly over arms sales.

"Well, I don't know why one needs to talk about recent US moves," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said when asked to comment on the statement.

Boucher said there had been no change in US policy regarding China and Taiwan and vowed that defence sales to Taipei would continue as enshrined in US law.

"We continue the sale of appropriate defensive military equipment to Taiwan in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act," he said.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ongoing sales of US weapons to Taiwan had been in the pipeline for a "long time."

The delay was caused by funding discussions in the Taiwanese legislature, he said.

Taiwan's cabinet on June 2 approved a special budget of 610 billion Taiwan dollars (18.2 billion US) for the purchase of advanced weaponry. A team from Taipei was reportedly in the United States recently to shop for arms.

The United States remains the leading arms supplier to Taiwan despite its shift of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

Under a 25-year-old US law, the United States acknowledges Beijing's position that Taiwan is part of China but is bound by law to provide weapons to help Taiwan defend itself if its security is threatened.

China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island declare formal independence. The two sides split in 1949 at the end of a civil war but Beijing regards the island as part of its territory.

Cross-strait tension has been escalating since pro-independence Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian took office in 2000, and since his re-election in March this year.

- AFP

catching the US intel community off guard

Chinese produce new type of sub

China's naval buildup has produced a new type of attack submarine that U.S. intelligence did not know was under construction, according to U.S. defense and intelligence officials.

The submarine was spotted several weeks ago for the first time and has been designated by the Pentagon as the first Yuan-class of submarine.

A photograph of the completed submarine in the water at China's Wuhan shipyard was posted on a Chinese Internet site this week and confirmed by a defense official as the new submarine. Wuhan is located inland, some 420 miles west of Shanghai.

One official said the new submarine was a "technical surprise" to U.S. intelligence, which was unaware that Beijing was building a new non-nuclear powered attack submarine. U.S. intelligence agencies have few details about the new submarine but believe it is diesel-powered rather than nuclear-powered, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The new boat, which appears to be a combination of indigenous Chinese hardware and Russian weapons, suggests that China is building up its submarine forces in preparation for a conflict over Taiwan, defense analysts say.

"China has decided submarines are its first-line warships now, their best shot at beating carriers," said Sid Trevethan, an Alaska-based specialist on the Chinese military. "And China is right."

"One has to marvel at the enormity of the investment by the People's Liberation Army in submarines," said Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military.

China also is building two nuclear-powered submarines — one Type 093, believed to be based on the Russian Victor-III class and armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles, and a Type 094 attack submarine, which the Pentagon believes has a finished hull and will be ready for deployment next year.

According to Mr. Trevethan, China currently has a force of 57 deployed submarines, including one Xia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine, five Han submarines, four Kilos, seven Songs, 18 Mings and 22 Soviet-designed Romeos. Beijing also has eight more Kilos on order with Russia.

Disclosure of the new submarine comes as the United States is trying to sell eight diesel submarines to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a breakaway province. Taiwan currently has just two World War II-era Guppy-class submarines and two 1980s Dutch submarines.

Mr. Fisher, an analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said that despite the imbalance of power on the Taiwan Strait in favor of Beijing, the Bush administration has been slow to sell the submarines it offered Taiwan in April 2001.

"It is simply appalling that the United States cannot get its act together to organize the production of eight new submarines for Taiwan," Mr. Fisher said.

U.S. defense officials have said delays with the Taiwan submarine deal are the result of the Taipei government's budget problems.

Chinese leaders told National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice last week that China would "not sit idly by" as Taiwan moved toward formal independence, and President Hu Jintao denounced U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.

But Miss Rice said the United States will go ahead with its Taiwan arms sales plan because of China's missile buildup opposite the island.

A Pentagon report made public in May stated that China is changing its warship forces from a coastal defense force to one employing "active offshore defense."

"This change in operations requires newer, more modern warships and submarines capable of operating at greater distances from China's coast for longer periods," the report said, noting that submarine construction is a top priority.

Mr. Fisher said the Chinese submarine buildup should prompt the Pentagon to step up U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities, which he said are "at an historic low" because of cutbacks in specialized ships and aircraft.

The Navy should consider building its own diesel attack submarine to be able to "effectively duke it out with the new tidal wave of Chinese subs, that if left unchecked, may soon dominate the Asian littoral regions," Mr. Fisher said.

The Pentagon is also building up U.S. naval forces in the Pacific, with the addition of up to six attack submarines in Guam and the possible deployment of an aircraft carrier battle group to Hawaii in the coming months.

Link

The US, having gone the way of nuclear subs is hard pressed at constructing diesel subs. If they really want to give Taiwan 8 diesel boats the soonest possible time, Its better to buy diesel boats from European builders and hand them to Taiwan.

The US has been in discussions with Spain about a co-op license build. The Danes, Germans and Swedes have all said no for fear of risking trade with China. There was intermittent drivel about the US buying into the Australian sub building facility - but that also would place Oil, Wool and Gas sales at risk (approx $50bn), $3bn in sub sales just doesn't balance out on $50bn trade.

There has been some talk about trying to establish a dissimilar sub warfare area (poss the Australian Sub warfare Zone where perisher trg is conducted). But IMHO there is more chance of Bhutan becoming a world superpower in the next 18 months.

doesn't look any different to me

there's some some talk that the chicoms were just playing photoshop games on the yanks

Who knows our own PMC grunts will come barrel-to-barrel with this Chinese weapon someday...



Data for QBZ-95 (QBZ-97 in ( )

Caliber: 5.8x42 mm (5.56x45 mm NATO)
Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt
Overall length: 760 mm
Barrel length: 520 mm
Weigth: 3.4 kg unloaded
Magazine capacity: 30 rds


The QBZ-95 assault rifles were shown for the first time when PR China took over the Hong Kong in 1997. The PLA soldiers were armed with this bullpup assault rifle. It is chambered for new proprietary Chinese cartridge, 5.8x42mm, and QBZ-97 (export version) is chambered for standard 5.56mm NATO (.223 Rem). The QBZ acronym stands for 'Qing Buqiang Zu' or light rifle family.

Not much is known about this rifle. It is available in full-size or short (carbine) version, and may be equipped with telescopic or night sights, underbarrel grenade launcher and bayonet. The ejection port is located at the right side of the receiver so (probably) this rifle is not ambidextrous. The body (stock) of the rifle is made from polymer, as well as magazines.

NORINCO 5.8 mm QBZ Type 95 assault rifle Development

During the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic
of China in 1997, it was noted that at least some of the
troops involved in the ceremonies were equipped with a
model of bullpup rifle not previously seen. Few details
were available regarding this rifle, which forms part of
what has been described as the Type 95 QBZ (QBZ - Qing
Buqiang Zu - light rifle family). It utilises a new 5.8 ×
42 mm cartridge. Apparently the QBZ family is not intended
for export as a more market-acceptable model, the 5.56 mm
Automatic Rifle Type 97, has been developed for this
purpose (see separate entry).

Description

The receiver of the 5.8 mm QBZ bullpup rifle is shrouded in
a moulded polymer butt-stock, with the fore-end and pistol
grip made from the same dark-coloured material. The cocking
lever is protected under a carrying handle which also
contains the rearsight; the foresight is on a post
protected by a small cylinder. A three-position fire
selector and safety switch is on the right-hand side of the
body just above the pistol grip, although this switch is
not present on some examples.

The front trigger guard is much larger than usual as it provides the rear location point for an optional underslung spin-stabilised grenade launcher; it also provides a convenient location for the non-firing hand. The grenade launcher appears to have a calibre of 40 mm and is of the M203 pattern. A flash eliminator attachment on the muzzle can be used to launch rifle grenades.
The top of the carrying handle can also be used to mount optical or night sights.

Variants

A light support weapon version of this rifle is also in
service. It has a longer and heavier barrel, a light bipod
and a drum magazine, probably holding 75 rounds. There is
no provision on the light support weapon for a grenade
launcher. See entry under Machine guns for an illustration.

Reports have also been made regarding a short carbine-pattern variant, described as a sub-machine gun but retaining the 5.8 mm cartridge. There is no provision for mounting a grenade launcher.
There is also a Type 88 selective fire sniper rifle variant. The latter has a longer barrel, making the weapon about 920 mm overall, an optical sight together with folding iron sights and an adjustable height bipod. A 10-round box magazine appears to be standard. As the optical sight is secured to a rail over the receiver the cocking lever is switched to the right-hand side of the receiver. Weight of this variant is understood to be 4.2 kg. There is no provision for mounting a grenade launcher.


This post has been edited by Rallion Tiger on Jul 20 2004, 11:47 AM

5.8mm maybe do not offer much difference in balistics from 5.56mm

5.8 or 5.56 dont matter , if you're hit in the right place, youre dead

5.8 or 5.56 dont matter , if you're hit in the right place, youre dead

true.. but if you didn't hit your enemy in the right place the first time.. he gets that half-second to shoot you back.. and it may not be your lucky day.. thats the beauty of having heavier bullets.. the impact alone wll send you head over.. and even if your not seriously injured, the wound and damage is bigger and you'll bleed to death that much quicker..

Photos taken while returning from sea trials. Note the VLS array

Interesting opposed angle - probably a cold launch system for the HQ-9(?).