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People’s Daily: Japan Plans to Deploy U.S. Anti-Missile “Sade” System to Contain China

According to Japan’s Kyodo News report, for the first time, Japan’s defense ministry made it clear that the Japanese Self-Defense Force will consider the introduction of the U.S. anti-missile system "Sade." 

Chinese military expert Liang Fang said that the Japanese, in order to show their importance to the United States, will work very closely with the United States in its Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy. If Japan deploys the "Sade" system, the U.S. will substantially advance its anti-missile system and push them to the periphery of China. It will not only increase the cost of China’s security and defense, but also weaken China’s offensive capability, having the effect of containing China and keeping it from "going out." 

Military expert Yin Zhuo pointed out that the U.S.-Japan joint operations has had the first island chain blockade as an important goal. If the U.S. nuclear submarine and aircraft carrier battle groups were to conduct a joint blockade, coupled with information technology tools, it might have some effect. In such a situation, "China should keep some combat forces outside the [first] island chain, such as nuclear submarines and large-scale surface ships. Once the war breaks out, China can coordinate its actions inside and outside the island chain and launch a joint campaign to break the blockaded island chain." 
Liang Fang agreed with Yin Zhuo, "China must not be limited to breaking the blockade of the US and Japan from within the first island chain." The reason why the Chinese Navy proposes to "go out" is because China needs not only to have the capability of integrated offshore operations, but also to have the far sea counter capability outside of the first island chain. 
Source: People’s Daily, December 4, 2015 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/1204/c1011-27891505.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: Armed Forces Declared Across-the-Board Support for Military Reform

Xinhua recently reported that all major branches of the Chinese military expressed firm support of the military system reform addressed in President Xi Jinping’s recent speech. The key units that officially declared their positions are: The General Staff, General Political Department, General Logistics Department, General Armament Department, as well as the Shenyang, Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu Military Regions, plus the Navy, the Air Force, the Second Artillery, the Military Science & Defense University, the National Defense University, and the Armed Police Force. In a statement that the General Departments released, it was mentioned that the reform goal was to ensure President Xi’s “firm control of the top military leadership and commanding power.” This is the first time such language has been used to describe the military reform. 
Source: Xinhua, November 27, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-11/27/c_1117285384.htm
Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Eleven Chinese Military Aircraft Approached Ryukyu

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the Japanese Defense Ministry revealed on November 27, that eleven Chinese military aircraft flew across the East China Sea over the high seas towards the island of Ryukyu. The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force responded with sending emergency flights. According to the details reported by Japanese news agencies such as Yomiuri Shimbun, the Chinese aircraft included an H6 Bomber and a TU154 reconnaissance aircraft. The Chinese airplanes later returned back to China. It is very rare for as many as eleven Chinese military aircraft to approach Japan. The Japanese Defense Ministry is still analyzing the intent of the Chinese Air Force. The last time any Chinese military aircraft approached Ryukyu was in July of this year. 
Source: Sina, November 27, 2015
http://dailynews.sina.com/gb/news/int/cna/20151127/10097050266.html
Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Global Times: Chinese Naval Admiral Warned U.S. Admiral to His Face

Global Times recently reported that Chinese Naval Commander Admiral Wu Shengli met with U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift, who was visiting Beijing on November 19. Wu said in the meeting that China is strongly against the recent U.S.’ “serious provocation” against China’s sovereignty by approaching Chinese islands too closely under the name of freedom of navigation. Wu asked the U.S. Navy to cherish the valuable U.S.-China relationship, stop threatening Chinese national security in the South China Sea, and carefully control the U.S.’ maritime military activities. Swift replied that the U.S. Navy does not want to cast a shadow over the relationship of the two navies only because of the South China Sea situation. He called for more joint exercises to avoid potential misjudgments and accidents based on The Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea. 
Source: Global Times, November 20, 2015
http://mil.huanqiu.com/china/2015-11/8016437.html
Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Global Times: China Should Consider Establishing Overseas Military Bases

Wang Haiyun, Senior Advisor at the China Institute for International Strategy, published an article proposing that China break through the old restriction on establishing overseas naval bases. The article provided the following arguments in favor of his suggestion: 

China has become the world’s second largest economy and is truly a big country in the world no matter which way you look at it. China’s global interests are expanding; its global responsibility is also increasing. China hopes to provide more public engagement with the international community, including more involvement in combating piracy and conducting peacekeeping operations and humanitarian relief. Regardless of which task is performed, they all depend on protection from overseas military bases. The world’s major powers all have overseas military bases. The U.S. military bases are all over the globe. Even Japan has opened a logistics base overseas. As a UN Security Council permanent member, why should China tie itself? 
China’s economy is increasingly integrating with the world economy. China’s enterprises’ "going out" process is accelerating. China’s overseas assets are growing in scale. More and more people are working and traveling overseas. The security tasks of maintaining oil and gas pipelines and other infrastructure are becoming more arduous. Because it lacks overseas military bases to provide security, China will inevitably encounter more and more problems and security risks. With the advance of “one belt, one road" initiative, this situation will become even more prominent. 
The Chinese Navy is moving from an offshore towards becoming a blue water navy. Just for the consideration of training needs, we cannot do without foreign military bases. 
Source: Huanqiu (Global Times), November 14, 2015
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/1152/2015-11/7976011.html 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/1114/c1011-27815180.html
Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Top Military Official: China Will Not Resort to Force Recklessly Even on Issues Involving Territory

Sina.com, a major Chinese web portal, carried a Global Times report that Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, stated that China has always advocated handling disputes through peaceful means and will not use force recklessly, even when it comes to issues related to territory and sovereignty. 

Fan made the statement while addressing the sixth Xiangshan Forum in Beijing last Saturday morning. He said that China always insists on resolving disputes through friendly negotiations with parties directly involved and will try its best to avoid unexpected conflicts. 
Fan said China has settled land and border issues with a majority of neighboring countries through consultation. Regarding growing concerns over the construction on coral islands in the South China Sea, Fan anticipated that the construction, mostly for civilian purposes, would improve marine navigation and provide public services. 
Source: Global Times, October 17, 2015 
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/nd/2015-10-17/doc-ifxiwazu5555260.shtml
Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xi Jinping: China to Cut Military by 300,000

On September 3, at the military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World War II victory, Xi Jinping announced that China will cut its military by 300,000.  At a press conference thereafter, Yang Yujun, spokesperson for the China Ministry of National Defense, provided additional information about the decision. Yang said that the Chinese military consists of about 2.3 million and will be reduced to 2 million. The move will mainly target troops equipped with outdated armaments, administrative staff, and non-combatant personnel. The purpose is to optimize the structure of the Chinese forces. The disarmament will be carries out step by step and will be completed by end of 2017. 

Source: Xinhua, September 3, 2015 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2015-09/03/c_1116458395.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Global Times: U.S. Praise of the Dongfeng 21-D Missile Harbors Ill Intentions

China’s state-media Global Times recently published an article reminding China to keep a sober mind toward the U.S. media’s praise of China’s Dongfeng-21D missile being a killer weapon that can destroy U.S. aircraft and not to follow the Soviet Unions’ path of failure. 

The article said, “As we all know, the United States has never stopped preparing for potential conflict against China. From the U.S. media or its military’s mouth, China’s arsenal Dongfeng-21D is the greatest ‘killer’ threat to the United States. It is as if, having the Dongfeng-21D, China will be able to control the U.S.’ life or death and then just sit back and relax. This kind of propaganda actually is exactly the same tactic as ‘the Soviet submarine threat’ that the U.S. used during the Cold War. At that time, the U.S. tried to do everything possible to hype that Soviet nuclear submarines are a ‘strong deterrent’ to the U.S. aircraft carrier. However, they had [secretly] balanced the development of aircraft carriers, submarines, and other ships, and built up a full range of sea power. Today, the United States hopes to use the same old trick to interfere with the balanced development of the Chinese navy so as to achieve the effect of defeating its opponent without a fight. 
“In modern warfare, one or two ‘killer’ weapons are unable to reverse the overall situation. China should keep a sober mind about the U.S. media’s touting of the Dongfeng-21D or some other ‘secret weapon.’ Thankfully, in recent years, China has been promoting the pace of key weaponry and equipment, developing large surface combat ships, new submarines, aircraft, long-range missiles with strong penetration ability, large, deep and high-speed smart torpedoes, and other new generation weaponry. This shows that the Chinese navy’s development strategy has not bit into the U.S. interference. Some U.S. groups’ ill intention is also doomed to fail.” 

Source: Global Times, August 25, 2015 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/0825/c1011-27513331.html 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2015-08/7352214.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military