Global Times – The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday announced it will conduct regular combat readiness security patrols in the Taiwan Straits after declaring a successful conclusion of recent drills around the island, which experts said indicates that the PLA is ready for combat whenever national sovereignty and territorial integrity is threatened. 

War Zone – The Pentagon warns that China’s military actions are trying to intimidate Taiwan and the West and create a “new normal.”

War Zone – China’s Type 055 destroyers, one of which is seen in great detail in these photos, are a symbol of Beijing’s drive to modernize its fleet.

Global Times – Joint military exercises around the island of Taiwan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continued Wednesday with a joint blockade, sea assault and land and air combat trainings, involving the use of advanced weapons including J-20 stealth fighter jets and DF-17 hypersonic missiles after the drills started on Tuesday evening, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed on the island which seriously violates China’s sovereignty.

War Zone – China has ordered snap exercises that could extend into Taiwan’s territorial waters in response to Pelosi’s visit.

USNI News – The increasingly frequent aggressive actions by the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force like “chaffing” an Australian patrol aircraft in international waters and causing a Canadian patrol aircraft to alter its course to avoid a collision off North Korea “look like a pattern and policy” dictated by Beijing rather than random acts by pilots, the Pentagon’s senior official on Indo-Pacific security said Tuesday.

War Zone – China’s E-2 Hawkeye-like KJ-600 is moving deeper into flight testing in preparation for joining the Type 003’s enhanced carrier air wing.

War Zone – Imagine low-cost nuclear-powered torpedoes that can travel largely undetected in a swarm across the Pacific Ocean and strike U.S. targets in about a week. To a group of researchers in Beijing, that’s not just a fever dream, it’s a concept they believe they can turn into reality. And an ambition U.S. State Department officials have been warning about.

China Maritime Studies Institute – The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) believes that logistics support is one of the key determinants of a successful large-scale invasion of Taiwan. Logistics support includes transport, materiel and oil supply, medical care, search and rescue, logistics infrastructure protection, and maintenance of war materiel reserves. Despite the recognized importance of logistics support, it is likely the PLA does not currently possess the requisite logistics capabilities to successfully support a large-scale amphibious landing on Taiwan and a possible protracted conflict involving the United States and allies. Key deficits include a lack of amphibious ships (both military and civilian), transport aircraft, and war reserves. The PLA also continues to face difficulties with landing the requisite logistics supplies during the critical beach assault phase, constructing maritime transfer platforms or temporary wharves to sustain resupply if intact ports are not rapidly captured, establishing a landing base for logistics operations, maintaining the flow of logistics during on-island combat, and establishing strategic war reserves to support the large-scale operation and possibly prolonged conflict. These problem areas might be resolved with several years of sustained effort and complex training.

War Zone – Ports, other logistics hubs and command and control centers would be heavily targeted in any conflict with China.

USNI Proceedings – As the Ukraine conflict makes plain, the costs of full-scale war can be high and unpredictable. This could reinforce Beijing’s preference for the tactics of insurgency—some of which the United States may need to adopt.

Global Times – Over the past month, the Japanese Defense Ministry has posted more than a dozen reports on Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval activities around the island country, as the last ship in the PLA Navy task force led by the Type 055 large destroyer Lhasa reportedly returned to the East China Sea on Tuesday, wrapping up its voyage that went round Japan almost entirely. The growing capabilities of the PLA Navy will mean that such activities become routine, and their significance goes beyond just sending Japan warnings amid its right-wing provocations, as the PLA Navy aims to become a blue-water navy that will operate farther in distant waters to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, experts said on Wednesday.

Global Times – The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently held simulation training for transport aircraft to land on aircraft carriers, with military analysts saying on Wednesday that the move indicated that China is now developing fixed-wing transport aircraft and special mission aircraft including early warning aircraft for its third aircraft carrier, thanks to the latter’s electromagnetic catapults.

War Zone – At least 20 Chinese and Russian naval vessels have been tracked sailing around Japan and its outlying islands in the past few days.

1945 – James Holmes does not see Fujian as a game-changer in the Western Pacific, chiefly because the carrier will still face geostrategic challenges manifest in a first island chain occupied by potential foes.

USNI News – On Friday morning, China launched its third aircraft carrier, named Fujian. The 80,000-ton carrier is China’s first flat deck carrier and uses Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS)-powered catapults to launch its aircraft, in contrast to the ski jump of its other two carriers. The EMALS system can launch heavier aircraft, such as the J-35 fighter and airborne early warning aircraft, to operate off its flight deck.

The Hill – China this week vehemently denied a Washington Post report that it is covertly constructing a naval base in Cambodia. How to evaluate assurances of beneficent intent issuing forth from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpieces? Three bits of advice: Look at your map. Study past CCP practice. And remember that all such efforts to placate Asian and world opinion are perishable. They’re expedients, nothing more. A pledge’s shelf-life expires once Beijing decides it has outlived its usefulness.

Global Times – China’s first domestically developed 200 ton-class unmanned surface vessel, characterized by its capabilities in stealth and far sea operation, has wrapped up its first autonomous sea trial, with analysts saying that drone ships like this can provide new tactics for naval warfare including distributed operations and swarm combat.

War Zone – Imagery shows the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong working as a deployment platform for vertical takeoff and landing drones.

BBC – Australia has accused the pilot of a Chinese fighter jet of carrying out a dangerous manoeuvre near one of its aircraft over the South China Sea.

War Zone – China’s new drone ship is officially designed for ocean research, but has obvious value for the country’s military.

Global Times – China on Thursday slammed Japan for making dangerous close-range tracking and disruptions to an aircraft carrier of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy during the latter’s recent, legitimate drills in the West Pacific, with analysts saying that the Japanese move reflected the country’s ulterior motive of offensive military expansion under the excuse of the “China threat” theory.

Defense News – It appears China has put at least one other semi-submersible transport ship into service with the People’s Liberation Army Navy, according to photos published by state media showing the ship transporting an amphibious hovercraft.

(Thanks to Alain)

Global Times – The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy reportedly sent its most powerful bombers on Wednesday for drills in the West Pacific, joining the Liaoning aircraft carrier group, which has been holding exercises there since the start of the month, a move experts said could be a rehearsal for keeping foreign forces from interfering in the Taiwan question.

Reuters – Military analysts say a vessel spotted in a Chinese shipyard in rare, recent satellite images could be a new or upgraded class of nuclear-powered attack submarine.

(Thanks to Alain)