Militarization
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China Is Building A New Fleet Of Guided Missile Destroyers
On Dec. 22, 2014, China commissioned its latest guided missile destroyer, the Jinan 052C, the semi-official China Military Online reported. The Jinan was commissioned at a naval port in eastern China. From there, the vessel will join the East China Sea Fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Part of a new generation […]
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Maginot Line in the South China Sea
Airstrips, Artificial Islands, China, Maginot Line, Militarization, Paracels, Philippines, Reclamation, South China Sea Dispute, SpratlysThe Maginot Line was a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles, and weapons installations that France constructed just before the border with Switzerland and the borders with Germany and Luxembourg during the 1930s. A mature network of military facilities in the Spratlys, including an expanded Fiery Cross presence, would effectively extend China’s ability to project power […]
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China and the United States are preparing for war
China, Foreign Relations, Japan, Militarization, Mutual Defense, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, USA, Vietnam, WarUsually countries fight for gains or to prevent losses, but US experts are quite different. Michael Pillsbury, the director of the Centre on Chinese Strategy at the Hudson Institute, holds quite different views. In his recent article “China and the United States Are Preparing for War” he holds that war is inevitable because China is […]
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China’s Grand-Strategy Challenge: Creating Its Own Islands in the South China Sea
Artificial Islands, China, Militarization, Philippines, Reclamation, South China Sea Dispute, StrategySatellite images analyzed by defense intelligence magazine IHS Jane’s show that China is reclaiming on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands a piece of land that bears the shape of a 3000-meter airfield and a harbor large enough to receive tankers and major warships. This is not the first, but the latest in a […]
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Time for Japan to Get Its Own Nuclear Weapons?
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, China, Diaoyu, East China Sea, Japan, Militarization, Nuclear Weapons, Senkaku, South China Sea Dispute, WarIs it time for Japan to consider acquiring nuclear weapons? What about America’s nuclear forces? Are they the right size for today’s challenging international landscape? TNI’s Executive Editor, Harry J. Kazianis, spoke with Christine M. Leah, a postdoctoral Grand Strategy Fellow at Yale University to explore these topics and more. Also, please see Ms. Leah’s […]
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Wary of Japan’s new defense minister, China calls for peace
ADIZ, Air Defense Identification Zone, China, Diplomatic Relations, Japan, Militarization, Shinzo Abe, South China Sea DisputeBEIJING: China has advised Japan to stay on the ” path of peace”. The advice comes after newly elected prime minister Shinzo Abe picked a pro-militarization politician, Gen Nakatani, as the new defence minister. “It is our position that whoever serves as the defence minister of Japan, the Japanese side should follow the path of […]
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Asia’s military budgets surge as armies go high-tech
SYDNEY — On two recent occasions, a pair of Sukhoi Su-30 fighters have taken off from their base near the old Indonesian trading port of Makassar and flown far across the Indonesian archipelago to intercept unidentified aircraft. One of the mystery planes, a light aircraft being ferried from Darwin in northern Australia to its new […]
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How to deal with Chinese assertiveness: it’s time to impose costs
ASEAN, Cabbage Strategy, China, Code of Conduct, Militarization, Philippines, Rebalance, Scarborough Shoal, South China Sea Dispute, USAChina’s reemergence as a wealthy and powerful nation is a fact. In recent decades its rise has been unprecedented, moving from the tenth-largest economy in 1990, to the sixth-largest economy in 2001, to the second-largest economy in 2010. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), China now surpasses the United States in terms of purchasing […]
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Vietnam, the US, and Japan in the South China Sea
Between May and July 2014, China unilaterally deployed a giant drilling rig in waters claimed by Vietnam as its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The move led to a fierce confrontation between Chinese and Vietnamese government vessels and saw relations between the two countries deteriorate to their lowest point since 1988. The standoff also served as […]
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Even Indonesia: Concerns over China’s Reach in the South China Sea
China’s maritime disputes with its Asian neighbors over the Senkaku Islands, the Spratly Islands, and the Paracel Islands have made these collections of islets well known. (In China, they are known as the Diaoyu, Nansha, and Xisha Islands, respectively.) So far, Indonesia has largely stayed out of the fray—so much so that it is rarely […]