Glorious Mission is coming to a PC near you!

Note: If you are new here, read this then this, first.

Some while back I posted about a CoD-like Chinese video game created for the PLA. Well the game will be availible to the Chinese public this May!

Still can't find a download, but once the game is released in China it's only a matter of time before it ends up on the internet. An English version is unlikely so you may need to learn a little Chinese before you can play it right.

A Taste of American Politics Part 4

It just keeps getting better.




Heres a bonus video for the lolz

Glorious Mission

Epic

The Nanjing military region has hired Giant Network Technologies to produce a Modern Warfare-esque video game to help train soldiers. Despite being Chinese, it looks very well made. There is a full article here.

Destroy the American Imperialists!

I MUST HAVE IT!!!

Someone please, find me a torrent or something!

America gets Told. Hard.

Evan Osnos (欧逸文 Ōu yìwén) is the China correspondent for the New Yorker (dream job <3). On Wednesday he had an interview with Stephen Colbert where he reiterated the fact that China is beating us in everything except innovation and human rights. 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Evan Osnos
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Evan's Blog at The New Yorker

China and Nuclear Weapons Part II

Story Here

Ah Wikileaks, what would we do without you. Recent diplomatic cables show that the United States is trying and failing to get China to be more transparent about its nuclear arsenal. No surprise there, but what is concerning is what US military experts feel could be the reasons for China covering up most aspects of its nuclear program. The leaks state that Chief Deputy of the PLA, Ma Xiaotian told American defense officials that the expansion of China's nuclear arsenal was an "imperative reality" and there should be "no limit on technical progress", also saying that "it is impossible for China to change its decades-old way of doing business to become transparent using the US model".

In plain English: "As a designated nuclear power we have the right to build as many warheads as we want and we are under no obligation to keep the world informed on its details". Technically, that rendition is correct. China does not have to disclose the details on its nuclear program to the US the UN or anybody. It is one of the perks of being one of the five designated nuclear states by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Perhaps even more so than the US, China's neighbor Japan has had deep concerns over the secrecy of its nuclear program. Japan has taken notice to China's "increasingly bold" military practices and has become concerned that China is trying to eventually create an arsenal on par with that of the US and Russia, 10,000 warheads (I dont even think China has that much Uranium). Since the US and Russia signed the New START Treaty, which will cut both countries strategic stockpiles significantly, Japan fears China is taking the opportunity in America's stockpile reduction to build up its own. In fact it has gotten to the point where Japan is so worried, they're actually asking America to build up their nuclear strike capabilities and delivery systems. When Japan is asking you to invest in nuclear weapons rather than eliminate them, you know they must be worried. Japan wants America to stay powerful in the region to deter China from doing "something stupid" in regards to its nuclear weapons.

China has repetitively stated that its nuclear program is purely defensive in nature and even points to its no first use policy. However, most nuclear experts believe that promise to be complete bullcrap.

In the meantime, why not simulate your impending doom with this neat nuclear fallout simulator.

Taiwan's D-day

Story Here and Here

Mongol-Chinese dissident Yuan Hongbing has said to encountered secret documents that outline China's plans for Taiwan. Disturbingly, the documents give a deadline for reunification. It was Deng Xiaoping who stated that reunification was a matter of life and death for the Communist party. The documents outlines a deadline of 2012 for reunification, by any means necessary. They were created at a secret meeting in 2008, attended by members of the Politburo and secretariat of the Central Committee, leaders of the main military regions and officials from the United Front Department and Foreign, Public Security and State Security Ministries. The documents outlined the overall unification plan, political and legal plans, and strategies for invasion.

It is said that the Communist Party decided to make the 2012 deadline due to the increased amount of Mainlanders visiting Taiwan. The party fears that having their citizens exposed to uncensored media and other civil liberties that Taiwan has may make them question the party and start demanding more civil liberties. A mass civil uprising in China would cause a revolution unlike anything the world has ever seen. Naturally, the CCP wants to do everything possible to prevent that.

Yuan Hongbing’s newest book is Taiwan Disaster, which was released on Nov. 17 in Taipei, Taiwan. In this book, he discloses confidential findings on how the Chinese communist regime is determined to “unify” with Taiwan by 2012. Yuan maintains that, through its strategy of unifying the market and financial systems of China with those of Taiwan, Beijing is, at the same time, stepping up its own reunification agenda with its neighbor.

Yuan says it appears that the Chinese Nationalist (KMT) dominated government on Taiwan has not only failed to sense the danger, it is using propaganda and its still dominate control of Taiwan media to convince Taiwanese that as long as Taiwan works in concert with the CCP, it will grow its economy at high rates again. Yuan has serious concerns that the KMT dominated government is rolling over previously hard fought democratic advances.

Yuan’s main source for the CCP’s political agenda came from a highly classified document—Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s June 2008 speech given during the expanded meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CCP. This meeting focused on the strategy behind the Taiwan annexation plan. The meeting was so confidential that it was held deep in a cavern in Beijing’s West Mountain—the Central Military Commission’s First Strategic Command Center.

In that classified meeting, Wen Jiabao stated that an agreement must be signed to ensure that the rules of economic integration are followed. “Economic integration is by nature, economic unification. Taiwan benefits from it economically, and we [the CCP] fulfill our political goal by doing it.” It was also revealed that in order to break through the investment barrier erected by the government of Taiwan, a number of Taiwan’s merchants will have to be used as agents. They would be relatively well paid and would manage the CCP’s investments in Taiwan’s banks, insurance companies, and other strategic economic entities. In addition, “To manipulate Taiwan’s stock market so it rises or falls according to our will—that will take a lot of capital investment, but the expenditure is worthwhile, considering what we will gain politically.”

The CCP also plans to erode Taiwan’s politico-economic factions from within Taiwan by corrupting the Kuomintang (KMT) leaders and marginalizing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The economic strategy specifically targets the upper-classes of the Kuomintang (KMT), the sponsors of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and several million Taiwanese merchants.

According to Yuan, the regime has been betting on the KMT leaders for a long time. During the years from 2000-2008 when the KMT was not in control, the Chinese regime methodically began binding the economic dependency of the KMT leaders tightly to the communist regime by inviting them to open businesses in China.

In addition, Yuan explained that the regime has been trying to deepen the rift within the DPP by manipulating the money laundering case of its former leader, President Chen Shui-bian. The suppressing, weakening, and corrupting of the DPP is another integral part of the regime’s strategy to erode the country’s political framework. The book maintains the regime is fomenting social conflict and inspiring hatred toward the DPP. Yuan explains how economic means are to be used to control the sponsors of the DPP and disintegrate its standing in society.

Yuan reported that Jia Qinglin, the Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference, said in the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau, “For those Taiwanese merchants who support our policies with Taiwan, we must meet their reasonable financial requirements, making them feel that the mainland is a haven for investments. For those merchants who clandestinely go against our policies, we must strengthen our monitoring and control mechanisms, and pursue financial retribution. When necessary, we can ruin them financially and make them lose everything they own.”

If China fails to corrupt the Kuomintang or if the DPP wins in 2012, the documents indicate China is prepared to use military force to meet the deadline. The documents outline three scenarios:

• The DPP wins in 2012, there is no hope for peaceful reunification within the deadline.
• The KMT remains in power, but refuses reunification.
• The KMT agrees to unification, DPP supporters begin a mass civil uprising, prompting military action.

The documents reveal the preoccupation of Deng and other leaders not so much with the separate existence of Taiwan as the Republic of China as the threat it poses as a liberal and democratic alternative.   With the start of direct flights and mass tourism in 2008, tens of thousands of Chinese are visiting Taiwan for the first time. This year the number of Chinese visitors, more than 1.2 million, will overtake those from Japan as the number one source of tourists. These visitors can watch Taiwanese television, read its newspapers and magazines and see a society which has made a peaceful transition from a military dictatorship into a raucous, multi-party democracy. Some wonder why they do not enjoy the rights and freedoms of their Taiwan compatriots. It is this challenge that the Beijing leadership wants to stop. Their anger against Lee Teng-hui, the president who introduced a democratic system, was as much against this system as the fact that his agenda was an independent state.  The military document passed by the meeting calls for the use of all weapons in the PLA's arsenal except nuclear arms and a rapid operation to be concluded in seven-ten days. In the best scenario, a new KMT government in 2012 would not oppose the operation. "Experts believe that, following a KMT victory in 2012, the DPP will organize widespread protests and social disorder – this would provide sufficient reason to invade the island," it said. The attack would involve destruction of all Taiwan's military bases and capability, followed by landing of PLA units by parachute and naval vessels.

TL;DR: China is afraid Taiwan will influence Mainlanders to demand civil rights and question the CCP's rule. China wants reunification as soon as possible (by 2012) to prevent this, even by military action. They plan to make warm economic relations give Taiwan a false sense of security, then infiltrate their government. If all else fails, its war.

Of course there is much skepticism over Yuan's claims. 2012 seems like a very early deadline for such a major event that was planned in 2008. Other analysts say the reunification deadline is in fact much later, like 2020 or 2030.

There is also a huge wildcard that China must consider before attempting such a move.

There is no US legislation that says if America will come to their defense in the event of an invasion. But I do think its very likely they will. With all the economic tension between China and the US lately, an invasion of a peaceful democratic state by China may push American diplomats over the edge. Of course, only President Obama can authorize any military action, and it is very unclear as to how he stands on the Taiwan issue. Even if the US did not help, it is also likely that Japan may step in, as they have close non-diplomatic relations with Taiwan and a Chinese invasion would destroy Sino-Japanese relations. If that happens, Washington will be obligated to come to Japan's aid. When you think about it, such a large scale war my be good for the US economically. During WWII, the manufacturing of weapons and equipment caused the country to leap out of a depression into an economic superpower by the end of the war. But Im going off on a tangent.

Maybe the Mayans were right. Maybe a war with China is the 2012 world changing event everyones been raving about. Welp, all we can do is watch the clock go down.

American Politics Part 4

Guess Hu's coming to Town

Chinese President Hu Jintao will be making a special visit to the White House later this week, and they will be rolling out the red carpet for him. With two state dinners, a state lunch with Biden, and a meeting with American CEO's over entering China's markets.

It will be Obama's first state visit by the Chinese President and it will be interesting to see what kind of dialogue will be exchanged. Obama was hammered for not being more assertive towards China during his visit there in 2009 and during the G8 summit. Diplomatically, America has been China's bitch lately. The US government has so far failed to get China to budge on its undervalued currency or lack of transparency. They also pretty much stuck a big middle finger in our faces by unveiling a new stealth fighter while Robert Gates was there to get them be more open about their military operations (even though many of the J-20's parts are American).

Most of Obama's administration officials have said to the press that they tend to be more assertive this time around although this may just lead to more finger pointing as Hu said in an interview with American newspapers that he wants the US to end the "cold war mentality" of the relationship. It will be interesting to see how this visit goes and what kind of (if any) progress is made. No matter how it goes, I sense that a new Cold War is going to start soon.

In the meantime, China's State Council Information Office will be broadcasting ads on American TV to boost China's image as a soft power. It will feature various Chinese celebrities such as Jackie Chan, Yao Ming and Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei. I will definitely post it here as soon as I can.

China trying to boost its image in America? Where have I seen that before?

Gee, I wonder if Hu will be staying in the White House China Room?

Thats right, two puns in one post!

A taste of American Politics

One defends and the other conquers

The year is 1991. The Soviet Union has fallen and Operation Desert Storm is nearing its end. If you were a high officer in the People's Liberation Army, you would be shitting your pants.

You have just lost your most powerful ally and you are forced to watch as US forces lay waste to Saddam's armies, who are using technology similar to your own.

This was the reality for China at the time. It is likely that this is what triggered China's massive military growth since then. Over the past 20 years, the Pentagon has become increasingly concerned over the growth of China's military prowess.


As you may have been able to tell from my post on Red Dawn, the astonishing rapid growth of China’s military is of serious concern to me. I recently came across an article on China’s new Dong Feng 21D SSM. US security officials believe this missile is capable of sinking a Nimitz class Aircraft Carrier, something no country was ever capable of doing. It has always pondered me as to why China would need such sophisticated military equipment. China’s only real “enemy” is Taiwan, but they pose almost no threat. This could only mean that China feels threatened by the the US and the Western powers in general, but China has no reason to feel threatened by America as long as they do nothing too aggressive on the world stage. That brings up the question, what are China’s long term intentions? China’s military spending has had an annul increase in the double digits for over a decade. China claims all of that money is going toward “defense”, but as I said above, defense against what? Why do I feel this kind of military build up has been done before? By a certain island nation not far away less than a century ago?

Oh thats right! Japan! Despite having no real enemies, Japan spent the latter part of the 19th century building its military, with the intent of creating an empire in the pacific, particularly in attempt to usurp China as the reigning power of the eastern world. Surely enough, Japan soon invaded China in the first Sino-Japanese War, starting a deadly chain of events that would eventually lead to the Pacific War.

Now switch the positions of China and Japan, and keep in mind Japan is used by the United States to assert its influence in the pacific. Scary isn’t it? It leads me to wonder if China is attempting to challenge America’s influence in East Asia. So far it is only doing so through intimidation, but it doesn’t take much for things to turn bloody. Im not so sure China is intending on creating an empire, but they certainly see America as a roadblock in asserting dominance in East Asia. It seems like this military build up has the intention pushing America out through intimidation and if necessary, through force.

For those conspiracy theorists out there who want to dig into this topic more, there are some interesting documents worth reading:

United States Department of Defense: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China

This is an annual report to Congress issued by the Pentagon that assesses the threat posed by the PRC as well as other concerns regarding the People's Liberation Army.

A Critique of the China Threat Theory: A Systematic Analysis

China the US and Clashing Aims: A rising Superpower confronts a fading one

WikiLeaks - Category: China

The Rise of China a Security Threat?

World War III anyone?

China and Nuclear Weapons

It appears there is some misconception on the status on nuclear weapons in China. Id thought I should clean things up.

China’s nuclear weapons program began shortly after the PRC’s founding. Mao Zedong believed China would never be taken seriously without nuclear warheads, and that they would be under constant “nuclear blackmail” from the US. With the help of the Soviet Union, China built its first nuclear reactors. They also relied on the Soviets for nuclear materials such as yellowcake. After the Sino-Soviet split in the early 1960’s, China had lost its assistance from the USSR, but was determined to “break the west’s monopoly on nuclear weapons”. On October 16, 1964 China detonated its first atomic bomb, code named ‘596’, in Lop Nur. Within a few years, they tested their first hydrogen bomb and created warheads for ICBM’s.

Today, China is one of the five recognized nuclear powers. Its current stockpile is believed to be about 250 warheads. For comparison, the UK has just over 200, France about 350, the US has over 10,000 and Russia has almost 12,000 (enough to destroy the earth ten times over).

China has signed and ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. China is also the only nuclear state with a ‘no first use’ policy, meaning they promise not to use nuclear weapons against any country unless nuclear weapons are used on China first. As seen in my very first post, China has ICBM’s that can carry warheads anywhere in the world except South America.

The ROC/Taiwan currently does not possess nuclear weapons. However in 1967, shortly after China’s hydrogen bomb test, the ROC began a secret nuclear weapons program. Out of the facade of creating energy, Taiwan was able to acquire nuclear materials from the US and Canada. By the 1970’s Taiwan was able to produce weapons grade plutonium in large enough quantities for a bomb. But the US soon found out about the program and pressured Taiwan to dismantle it in 1976.

There is currently no intelligence of Taiwan possessing a bomb, yet they do have the resources to construct one. The PRC has stated that possession of nuclear weapons by the ROC would be grounds for immediate military action. With that kind of threat breathing down their necks, I highly doubt the ROC would risk having a secret nuclear weapons program.

And now for some delicious footage.

Apparently this is from Trinity and Beyond a documentary on the atomic bomb. I have no idea if actual footage of the test exists. If this is real you can easily see the huge propaganda aspect of it.

It has been... A Red Dawn

Many have heard of the infamous 1984 movie “Red Dawn”, were the Soviet Union and Allies in Latin America launch a full scale invasion of the United States and (presumably) start World War III. While a group of students from a small town in Washington form a guerilla army resistance group called the “Wolverines” and fight back. Well, Hollywood is at it again. And its not the Soviets this time.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, that symbol is made of the Chinese characters for 8 (八) and 1 (一). It is the seal of the People’s Liberation Army. The numbers 8 and 1 signify the month and day the Chinese communist militia was organized; August 1^st, 1927.

This remake of Red Dawn replaces the Soviets with Communist China. There is a huge amount of irony in this because in the original Red Dawn, the Chinese were on our side because the Soviets were invading them as well.

The Film is set to hit theaters November 24. There have been rumors that the film may be delayed due MGM’s short of funds, however it is still officially set for a November release.

There is no official trailer yet, but there is an unofficial news and information site for the movie here.

I do not know what to say about this film. On one hand I feel it will be downright epic, on the other hand I feel that this may just be capitalizing off of the average Westerners ignorance and uncertainty of China’s growing military and economic power.

China is obviously butthurt over this movie. Many of its state run newspapers have bashed the movie saying it portrays China negatively. There is no doubt it will be banned there.

But this film raises a much larger question; Would the US and China ever go to war?

In the near future? Highly unlikely.

Way down the road? Unless the regime collapses some other way, I see it as inevitable.

China and the US have major unresolved disputes that are not frequently discussed. Such as the manipulation of currency, human rights, Taiwan, Tibet, secret military spending, exploitation of third world countries, cyber terrorism, North Korea, the list is huge. But as in any situation were those on top (The US) become threatened by a rising underdog (China), there is eventually going to be conflict.

Its just like Lieutenant Tanner said;

“The two toughest kids on the block, I guess...Sooner or later they gonna fight.”

Now before you go start investing in that bomb shelter, Id like to reiterate that a war of that scale is incredibly unlikely during our lifetime. If the war happened tomorrow, the US would certainly win, especially with back up from NATO and our 10,000 nuclear warheads FUCK YEAH!

Even if China wanted to invade, they wouldn’t even be able to get here, as they have no blue water navy. However, they do have over 300 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and nuclear warheads capable of destroying any city in the western world, as per this map.

The relationship between the United States and China will decide the course of the 21^st century. Just as our relationship with the Soviet Union defined the 20^th century. There will be no war in the near future. But if China continues its aggressive expansion on the global stage and continues to build up its military, there is a chance that our grandchildren’s neighborhood may look something like this.