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China flies record 38 planes over Taiwan defence zone in national day show of force
Taipei says Chinese jets and bombers crossed zone as Beijing marked the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic

Reuters
Sat 2 Oct 2021 06.49 BST

A record 38 Chinese military jets crossed into Taiwan’s defence zone as Beijing marked the founding of the People’s Republic of China, officials in Taipei have said.

The show of force on China’s national day on Friday near the self-ruled democratic island, which Beijing claims as part of its territory, came in the same week it accused Britain of sending a warship into the Taiwan strait with “evil intentions”.

The Taiwan defence ministry reported on Friday that its fighters had scrambled against 18 J-16 and four Su-30 fighter jets plus two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers and an anti-submarine aircraft.

Then in the early hours of Saturday, the ministry said a further 13 Chinese aircraft were involved in a mission on Friday night – 10 J-16s, 2 H-6s and an early warning aircraft.

It said Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.

The first batch of Chinese aircraft all flew in an area close to the Pratas Islands, with the two bombers flying closest to the atoll, according to a map issued by the ministry.

The second group flew down into the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, a key waterway that links the Pacific with the disputed South China Sea.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -air-space

China’s Weapon Tests Close to a ‘Sputnik Moment,’ U.S. General Says
Gen. Mark A. Milley said China’s testing of a hypersonic missile “has all of our attention.”

By David E. Sanger and William J. Broad
Oct. 27, 2021

WASHINGTON — China’s testing of a hypersonic missile designed to evade American nuclear defenses was “very close” to a “Sputnik moment” for the United States, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday in the first official confirmation of how Beijing’s demonstration of its weapon capabilities had taken American officials by surprise.

The tests, which could revive fears of a Cold War-like arms race, come as Beijing is spending heavily to modernize its military and may be seeking to expand its nuclear arsenal.

Two separate tests, reported earlier by The Financial Times, took place this summer, conducted in a fashion that Chinese officials knew would be highly visible to American satellites. But United States officials remained mostly silent until General Milley spoke on Wednesday, talking about the tests on a Bloomberg Television interview show hosted by David Rubenstein, the billionaire investor and philanthropist.

“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” General Milley said, making it clear he and other officials were surprised. The tests, he said, were a “very significant technological event,” and he said “it has all of our attention.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/us/p ... ssile.html

Two Hong Kong universities remove Tiananmen artworks after Pillar of Shame dismantled
CUHK’s Goddess of Democracy and a sculpture at Lingnan University were removed overnight as authorities move to erase memorials to the massacre

Guardian staff and agencies
Fri 24 Dec 2021 03.22 GMT

Two more Hong Kong universities have removed works of art marking Beijing’s deadly 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square democracy protesters, as authorities move to erase memorials to the event.

The removals come a day after Hong Kong’s oldest university took down a statue named the Pillar of Shame, commemorating the events of 1989, sparking outcry by activists and dissident artists in the city and abroad.

Hong Kong used to be the one place in China where mass remembrance of Tiananmen was still tolerated, with thousands gathering each year to mourn the hundreds of democracy protesters killed by Chinese troops in 1989.

The city’s university campuses have sustained the memory of the crackdown, with statues commemorating the events a vivid illustration of the freedoms the semi-autonomous territory enjoyed.

But early on Friday, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) removed the Goddess of Democracy from its campus.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... dismantled

China is demanding the U.S. end “interference” in the Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin next week, in an apparent reference to a diplomatic boycott imposed by Washington and some of its allies.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the demand in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday Beijing time, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The U.S. has said it will not send dignitaries to the Games, which open Feb. 4, in a protest over China’s detention of more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, along with crackdowns on human rights elsewhere in the country.

The boycott does not prevent U.S. athletes from taking part in the Games, which are being held under strict anti-pandemic rules. China has also protested what it says are calls within the State Department to withdraw staff and their dependents from the embassy and consulates around China over the tightening restrictions.

China is in the process of building a barbed-wire wall along its 1,300-mile southern border with Myanmar to prevent illegal crossings, according to recent reports.

Social media images from the town of Wanding and the city of Ruili—both in China's southwestern Yunnan Province—show 6- to 9-foot barbed-wire metal fences separating the two countries, U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Monday.

While media reports in China say the boundary fence has helped prevent illegal crossings and by extension COVID-19 outbreaks, the RFA report said it could also keep Chinese dissidents from fleeing the country.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Thu Feb 24, 2022 10:54 am Ben Siegel
@bensiegel
·
18m
TAIPEI, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Taiwan's air force scrambled again on Thursday to warn away nine Chinese aircraft that entered its air defence zone, Taiwan's defence ministry said, on the same day that Russia invaded Ukraine, a crisis being watched closely in Taipei.

China Says It Respects Ukraine's Sovereignty and Russia's Security Concerns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told senior European officials that China respects countries' territorial integrity and sovereignty, including Ukraine's, but that Russia's concerns about NATO's eastward expansion should be properly addressed.

Wang said the current situation in the Ukraine is not something Beijing wished to see, but China historically has opposed United Nations Security Council actions promoting sanctions.

Wang made the comments in separate calls with Britain's foreign secretary, the European Union's foreign affairs chief and France's presidential advisor, according to a statement from China's Foreign Ministry.

Suranis wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 7:33 pm Ya, they probably honestly don't give a shit. Why should they?

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 7:36 pm There was concern that they would throw in with Russia to strengthen their claim on Taiwan.