China's Defense/Military Breaking News Thread

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

i'm not sure about that one. It doesn't seem to be in any other news item that searched for. Anyway, a little more on cooperation with other militaries, this one is with Cambodia.

BEIJING, Sept 6, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A senior Chinese military leader
said here Wednesday that the Chinese armed forces are ready to enhance close
exchanges with the Cambodian army and continuously push forward their friendly
cooperative ties.

Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation
Army (PLA), told visiting Secretary of the Cambodian Ministry of National
Defense Neang Phat, that Cambodia is China's good neighbor, partner and friend.

The two countries cooperate in various fields and hold close consultation in
international and regional affairs, which contribute to regional peace,
stability and development, said Liang, who is also a member of the Central
Military Commission.

Neang Phat expressed appreciation for the support that Chinese government and
armed forces have been offering to Cambodia, voicing the hope that the two sides
will cement exchanges and maintain cooperation in various areas.

"Cambodia will continue to pursue the one-China policy and support China's
reunification course," he said.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

we know it probably won't happen anytime soon, but that doesn't stop China from bringing it up, does it?

BEIJING (AFX) - China called today for the European Union to lift its arms
embargo on Beijing, but an analyst and EU official indicated no breakthrough was
likely during Premier Wen Jiabao's upcoming European summit.
European nations have been divided about the embargo, which was imposed
after the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989, when hundreds of
unarmed demonstrators were killed by government troops.
"The EU side has many times confirmed that it would make efforts to lift the
arms embargo," said Li Ruiyu, deputy director-general of the foreign ministry's
European affairs department.
"We of course hope the EU will honour its commitments and make the political
decision to lift the ban at an early date. This will be conducive to the further
development of China-EU relations," he said.
He made the remark at a briefing about Wen's Sept 9-16 visit to Europe,
where he will attend a China-EU Summit and an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), as
well as make bilateral visits to Britain, Germany and Finland.
Li was asked if Wen would raise the embargo with European leaders. While he
did not answer that question directly, he repeated China's long-held position.
"The arms ban is a product of the Cold War. It is long outdated. For China
to ask for removal of the arms ban is to ask for a lifting of political
discrimination rather than seeking to increase weapons imports," Li said.
France is the prime supporter of lifting the ban, arguing it would be a
mostly symbolic recognition of China's growing clout.
But the United States and Japan are strongly opposed, fearing it could tilt
the strategic balance in Asia. The issue was shelved after European countries
disagreed on what to do.
Antti Kuosmanen, ambassador to China from Finland, which currently holds the
rotating EU presidency, suggested to reporters last week the time was still not
right.
"We see that the embargo is out of date and should be repealed and replaced
by the EU's own code of conduct for arms sales," Kuosmanen said.
"However, it seems that it is difficult to reach a solution on lifting the
arms embargo very quickly."
Feng Zhongping, director of the government think-tank China Institute of
Contemporary International Relations' Europe institute, indicated that China was
not expecting much progress on the issue during Wen's trip.
"The arms embargo issue is not yet mature," Feng told Agence France-Presse.
China will also again lobby for the EU to recognise it as a market economy
-- an important status which helps protect it against anti-dumping allegations
by its trading partners, Li said.
"We hope the EU will at an early date make a decision to recognise China's
full market economy status," Li said.
Kuosmanen, however, said last week that China did not meet all the technical
criteria.
He said one factor was that China was still not providing sufficient market
access to European companies doing business here, but that the EU hoped to find
a "mutually acceptable solution" as soon as possible.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

well, still no news on the real cause of the June aircraft crash, but at least some people are getting punished for it. If it wasn't an important platform like KJ-200, I don't think it would get reprimanded like this.

CHINA'S Central Military Commission has dismissed two high-ranking officers in
the People's Liberation Army and handed down lesser punishments to 16 other
senior soldiers for an air crash and a flood-related mishap that claimed dozens
of lives.
Zhang Guangjian, a regimental commander in the Nanjing Military Area Command's
air force, was dismissed over the crash of a transport plane, the commission
said yesterday.
The crash occurred on June 3 in eastern China's Anhui Province while it was on
a military mission, killing all 40 people aboard.
Details about the mission, the exact location of the crash and the identities
of the victims have still not been released.
But authorities did say icy conditions caused the plane to lose control.
Major General Jiang Jianzeng, deputy commander of the Nanjing military area and
also commander of the area's air force, received a strong reprimand that will
likely prevent further promotion, authorities said.
Guo Chunguang, air force deputy chief of staff, was demoted.
Wang Wei, the area's air force political commissar, and Yue Liu'an, deputy
director of the armament department, were given lesser reprimands.
Another six unidentified officers were also given reprimands and warnings.
Separately, seven officers were punished for neglecting their duties in
connection with a July 26 flash flood triggered by Typhoon Kaemi that swamped a
military barracks in eastern China's Jiangxi Province, leaving 48 people dead
or missing and injuring 60.
Chen Wei, deputy commander of a military regiment, was dismissed for failure to
respond immediately to the emergency.
Chen also faces an investigation by military prosecutors.
Wang Anli, a regiment chief, was demoted and five others were given reprimands
or warnings.
A notice issued by the Central Military Commission yesterday urged all PLA
units to intensify management and enhance the sense of responsibility among
their ranks.
``These factors are key to guaranteeing the safety of the troops as well as a
fast and sound development of military forces,'' it said.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

More analysis on the punishment of those involved in the two cases

The Central Military Commission announced this week that it has punished 11
officers in the People's Liberation Army over the crash of a military aircraft
in June which claimed 40 lives. Both the punishment and the publicity the
government has afforded the case are uncommon.
On 3 June a military transport plane came down in the mountains of Anhui,
killing all on board. The government has been content to accept the crash was
accidental; according to Xinhua news agency "the plane suffered icing on its
surface after flying through frigid air many times, resulting in a loss of
control and the crash". However, the punishments handed down on 7 September by
the Central Military Commission (CMC), the top military directorate which is
headed by President Hu Jintao, suggest there is much more to the story.
All the officers on trial belonged to the Nanjing Military Region (NMR)
under whose jurisdiction the crash occurred. The most high-profile figures to
be punished were Major General Jiang Jianzeng, air force commander in the NMR,
and the region's deputy political commissar Wang Wei, both of whom received
demerits. A regimental commander, Zhang Guangjian, was dismissed while the
deputy chief of staff for the region's air force, Guo Chinguang, was demoted.
Seven other officers from the NMR were either given demerits or warnings.
One suspicious aspect of the trial is that the punishments were unusually
severe even though the crash was due to technical rather than pilot error. The
government has made much of the fact that the composition of the crew violated
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PLA punished for China crash Page 2/4
military regulations; there were at least 20 senior military researchers on
board, which is three times more than is allowed. Nonetheless, the number of
officers punished this week seems excessive.
The question that the government is not prepared to answer is what all these
researchers were doing on a military transport plane. There is widespread
speculation that the aircraft was in fact a prototype version of an early
warning aircraft which China hopes will improve its reconnaissance
capabilities.
The loss of extremely valuable equipment and two dozen technical experts
will have dramatically set back the development of this capability; in this
context the CMC's desire for retribution is more understandable.
But the interest doesn't end there. The NMR, which covers the provinces of
Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, is the most important of China's
seven military regions because its location means that it is in charge of the
PLA's primary objective: the capture of Taiwan. It is therefore important for
Hu not only that the NMR is the most effective military force possible but also
that he is fully in control of it.
It is worth noting that the 3 June accident was only the first of three
mishaps to befall military aircraft in the NMR within three weeks: fighters
crashed in Fujian on 12 June and 21 June respectively. A greater number of
crashes often indicates more training, but it can also suggest inadequate
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training planes or simply inadequate training.
President Hu registered his unhappiness at the state of the air force as a
whole when he became head of the CMC in 2004. The purge of the NMR could
represent an attempt to shake up the air force in China's key military region.
Alternatively, the purge might represent another stage in Hu's perennial
campaign to stamp his authority on aspects of state machinery previously
dominated by his predecessor as president and chairman of the CMC, Jiang Zemin.
Inevitably the NMR has strong links to Shanghai, which is not only the major
mainland city closest to Taiwan but is also the region's economic powerhouse
(significant because of the strong commercial links between the PLA and state
businesses) and Jiang's fiefdom.
Foreign reporters have been content to connect this week's prosecutions to
other moves Hu has made to increase accountability in the PLA, which have
ranged from a high-level crackdown on corruption announced in August to an
edict issued this week ordering officers in military-registered cars to respect
traffic laws.
But any story which incorporates secret military research, Taiwan,
Shanghai, and Jiang is inevitably more complicated than that.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

looks like there will be more military exercise in store between China and Russia. Although, this one should be much smaller in scale

Russia, China to hold joint anti-terror exercises in 2007 - Nurgaliyev

ISKITIM (Novosibirsk region). Sept 28 (Interfax) - The Russian
Interior Ministry and the Chinese anti-terrorist forces are planning to
hold joint tactical maneuvers at the Russian Interior Ministry's
Khatsavita mountain training center in the Krasnodar region in May 2007,
Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told reporters on Thursday.
He was speaking after Russian anti-terror exercises in Iskitim in
the Novosibirsk region, which were attended by observers from Chinese
law enforcement agencies.
The Russian Interior Ministry already has experience of similar
joint exercises with special task units from other countries,
principally CIS republics, Nurgaliyev said.
"We have successfully conducted similar exercises with our
colleagues from Belarus, Armenia and Tajikistan and will continue
building up international contacts in combating terrorism," he said.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

this time, the PLA delegation are meeting with the Germans

BEIJING, Oct 7, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- China and Germany launched an
eight-day seminar for senior military officers on security policies here
Saturday.

The seminar, second of its kind, was sponsored by China's Ministry of Defence.
Altogether 15 senior military officers from China and Germany will discuss
Chinese foreign policy, defence policy, military modernization, Taiwan issue as
well as other topics of common concern in the following days.

Chief of General Staff of China's People's Liberation Army Liang Guanglie and
Inspector General of Germany's Federal Defence Forces Wolfgang Schneiderhan
attended the launching ceremony of the seminar.

Liang said in his speech that China-Germany military relations have made
remarkable achievements in recent years. The first seminar, held in Berlin last
year, have exerted positive effects on deepening cooperation and boosting
understanding between the two armed forces.

"Hope officers attending the second seminar could fully exchange their views and
bring forward suggestions for the future development of bilateral cooperation,"
said Liang, who is also member of China's Central Military Commission.

Schneiderhan said the seminar is a "very good" way of exchange between German
and Chinese military officers. It is beneficial for the two armed forces to
expand consensus, coordinate stances and develop friendship.

He expressed his hope that the two sides could continue to hold such seminars in
the future.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the senior officers will also visit
Shanghai, China's economic hub in the east.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

more of this, this time is with New Zealand military.

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China and New Zealand on Thursday pledged to enhance high-level exchanges between the armed forces of the two countries.

"China-New Zealand military ties have deepened since the two countries established diplomatic ties 34 years ago." Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan told visiting Jerry Mataparae, chief of New Zealand's Defence Forces.

Bilateral military ties featured frequent high-level visits, a sound exchange mechanism and deep cooperation in specialized fields, Cao said.

Mataparae hailed the rapid development of bilateral military ties, citing progress in various military fields.

"China will further develop relations with New Zealand's Defence Forces based on deepened understanding and cooperation," Cao said.

Echoing Cao's remarks, Mataparae said New Zealand hoped to maintain frequent high-level exchanges and increase cooperation between the two armed forces.

Mataparae started an officially friendly visit to China on October 8 as the guest of Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

The British are dropping by for a port call.

SHANGHAI, Oct 19, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A British Royal Navy ship "HMS
Westminster" arrived in Shanghai on Thursday afternoon on a five-day visit.

It is the eighth visit to Shanghai by British Royal Navy ships.

With 181 naval officers on board, the ship was greeted by Shen Changkang, deputy
chief of staff of the Shanghai naval base.

Neil Morisetti, the commander of the ship, met with Wei Zongpei, commissar of
the Shanghai naval base.

During their stay in Shanghai, naval officers will visit a frigate designed and
made in China, the city's landmark Oriental Pearl TV Tower and other scenic
spots. The naval officers of China and Britain will also battle it out in a tug
of war.

The "HMS Westminster" was launched in February 1992 and commissioned into
service in May 1994.

 

[tphuang]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

not really widely discussed, but there is an anti-terror drill going on in China.

(XIN) China holds anti-terror drill Page 1/2
BAOTOU, Inner Mongolia, Oct 19, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Chinese police,
armed police and People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers conducted a joint
anti-terror exercise in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from
Tuesday to Thursday.

More than 2,700 troops from different divisions took part in the three-day drill
in Baotou, a major industrial city of China. The drill was designed to "deal
with real threats".

The drill demonstrated the achievements Inner Mongolia has made in anti-terror
work, said Li Wei, director of the Anti-terrorism Bureau of the Ministry of
Public Security.

As a frontier region, Inner Mongolia has an arduous task in fighting terrorism
and safeguarding local safety and social stability, Li said.

 

[bd popeye]

Re: Chinese Military News Thread

PLA delagation visits US military in San Diego

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Chinese Military Delegation Visits San Diego
Story Number: NNS061101-24
Release Date: 11/1/2006 4:08:00 PM

By Chief Mass Communication Specialist (SW/AW) Walter T. Ham IV, U.S. 3rd Fleet Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- As part of a five-day tour of U.S. military bases in California and Hawaii, a Chinese military delegation visited the U.S. 3rd Fleet Command Center and the San Diego-based Guided Missile Destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88) here Oct. 30.

The delegation, consisting of 30 mid-level commanders from the People’s Liberation Army, also visited the I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Oct. 31, before flying to Monterey, Calif., and Honolulu to tour other military installations and cultural attractions.

“We have many common security interests with the Chinese,” said 3rd Fleet Deputy Commander, Rear Adm. John R. Hines Jr., “and this visit is a great opportunity to increase mutual understanding, enhance cooperation and improve the lines of communication.”

This was the third Chinese visit to the U.S. Pacific Command area of operations in the last 12 months as a part of a program of visits between the United States and China. A delegation of mid-grade U.S. commanders visited the People’s Republic of China in March 2006.

“We are committed to stability in the Pacific Rim region, and we are positioning our naval forces accordingly. These visits provide the transparency needed to improve mutual understanding,” said Hines. “U.S. 3rd Fleet was proud to host these Chinese commanders here in San Diego and to show them what makes our military so great: the men and women who choose to serve and wear the uniform.”

Covering 50 million square miles, U.S. 3rd Fleet commands operations, training and theater engagement from the west coast of the United States to the International Dateline. 3rd Fleet is also the strategic enabler for Sea Shield and Sea Trial.

For related news, visit the Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet Navy NewsStand page at

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