On March 12, 2013, at a naval port at Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, the People’s Liberation Army Navy officially commissioned a new Chinese next generation of stealth frigates.

According to Sun Min, a military representative that supervised the manufacturing process, the new frigate has three distinctive features. It has low tonnage but comprehensive equipment; it has a completely automated control cabin; and it can be produced in large quantities. “According to our plan, the frigate will most likely become the largest group of military vessels, to be manufactured concurrently by multiple shipyards with strong capabilities, a first in the Chinese history of frigate manufacturing.” The vessel has not incorporated many new stealth technologies, added Sun.

Source: Huanqiu, March 19, 2013
http://mil.huanqiu.com/china/2013-03/3748371_3.html

On March 20, 2013, People’s Daily published an article titled “A Typical ‘Multi-Failure’ War.” Li Shaoxian, Vice President of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) authored the article. According to Li, there have been no winners in the Iraq War that was launched on March 20, 2003. Ten years have passed; thousands of civilians have died in the terrorist bombing; and the nation is seriously split apart, which restricts the reconstruction and development of post-war Iraq. The war led to a serious geopolitical power imbalance in the Middle East. The cost of the war to the U.S. was both the huge military expenses and several thousand lives of American officials and soldiers. As to the evidence to start the war (Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had connections with terrorist organizations), it turned out to be fabricated. The United States suffered a significant loss to its international reputation.

The article concluded that the Afghanistan War, Iraq War and Libya War, which the U.S.-led Western countries initiated, all brought serious consequences to those countries.

Source: People’s Daily, March 20, 2013
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2013/0320/c1002-20845492.html

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a respected think tank based in Sweden, China has become the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter. Pakistan is the largest recipient of Chinese arms, accounting for 55 percent of Chinese arms exports.

“China replaced Britain in the list of the top five arms-dealing countries for the period between 2008 and 2012. According to SIPRI, the United States and Russia dominated the group, accounting for 30 percent and 26 percent of weapons exports.” Germany and France ranked third and fourth on the list of arms exporters.

China is also the world’s second largest arms importing country. The number of arms China imported from 2008 to 2012 accounted for 6 percent of the global total. The top arms importers between 2008 and 2012 were India, China, Pakistan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Source: Reuters Beijing and BBC Chinese, March 17 – 18, 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/17/us-china-arms-exports-idUSBRE92G0L120130317
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/03/130318_china_arms.shtml