With the unveiling of several major new high tech military systems and holding muscular drills these last few days, along with the largest military buildup since the Nazis in the 1930s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader Xi Jinping is sending an aggressive message to potential enemies, including the U.S. and its allies in the region.
The message: China is in military ascendance and shouldn’t be messed with.
The latest Pentagon report on Chinese military power says China seeks “mind dominance” through these efforts and shows of force as part of a “psychological warfare” operation.
The report adds that the PLA seeks to bring psychological pressure on an opponent, and cause fear, believing that using [cognitive domain operations] CDO to subdue the enemy without fighting “is the highest realm of warfare.”
Essentially, their goal is sheer intimidation
To this end, in the closing days of 2024, China’s navy made several unusually assertive military and naval deployments in sensitive locations, including one in the strait bordering the U.S. Navy’s base on Japan’s island of Okinawa.
Okinawa has the largest concentration of U.S. forces in Japan, including Kadena Air Base and the U.S. Marine Corps’ Third Marine Expeditionary Force, the core of the Marines’ rapid-reaction forces in the First Island Chain.
“This [patrol] is an unusual move that indicates China’s intention to impose a naval blockade,” said one Japanese government source.
China’s military also ramped up its patrols at contested Scarborough Shoal over the holidays. In both cases China used some of its largest and most lethal Coast Guard ships.
Scarborough is within the Philippine Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ), but it has been effectively occupied by Chinese forces since a standoff in 2012.
In support of the new claim over the shoal, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force conducted rare bomber and fighter overflights over the reef on December 29. The PLA Navy also deployed three warships to reinforce its patrol boats around the reef and began helicopter training in the area.
These actions are sending a message to U.S. and Philippine forces that China will fight for control of both the seas and the skies around the shoal.
Meanwhile, China also shocked Western defense officials when it unveiled in quick succession several major new cutting-edge military systems.
These included at least two revolutionary 6th generation tailless stealth combat aircraft, a new airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) jet aircraft and a new amphibious assault ship that could launch jets.
China’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, has a displacement of more than 40,000 tons, features a double island superstructure, a full-length flight deck, an electromagnetic catapult system and arrestor cable system, which allows it to launch and recover fixed-wing aircraft, in addition to helicopters.
Voice of America (VOA) reported:
The PLA Navy said the Sichuan is a “key asset” for enhancing the Chinese Navy’s long-range operational capabilities and facilitating its ongoing transformation.
Other analysts say Beijing wants to project military power “beyond its shores” through the launch of the Sichuan.
The launch is intended “to intimidate neighbors or ensure the PLA has the capability to land a large invasion force on Taiwan,” Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and a former Pentagon official, said.
In combat scenarios, experts say the Sichuan could be paired up with China’s aircraft carrier groups.
In addition to the launch of the new amphibious assault ship, two new seemingly 6th generation Chinese stealth fighters were seen flying in broad daylight last Friday.
This, as the U.S. struggles to design and produce just one.
The separate designs from competing aerospace companies Chengdu and Shenyang may be among the most sophisticated manned fighters ever.
The two fighters have a triangular, tailless design typical of 6th gen stealth fighters.
Either or both demonstrators could become multi-role fighters with serious air-to-air capability. But they might also function as stealthy ground-attack planes.
The Chinese government has yet to comment on the unnamed fighters, but their advanced designs show China is rapidly catching up with, or even surpassing, the U.S. and its allies in this critical technology.
“Apart from trying to become a sea power, these seemingly new fighter jets show China also wants to eventually replace the U.S. as the leading air power in the world,” one expert in Taiwan told VOA.
But it doesn’t end there. These aircraft and China’s many others will be guided by a large new four-engine homegrown airborne early warning and control jet based on the Y-20 cargo aircraft, reportedly named KJ-3000. This is a huge improvement over China’s current fleet dominated by turboprops.
The jet has a large circular radar dome on top of the fuselage as is commonly seen on many AEW&C aircraft, also known as AWACS.
The new jet would offer significant new advantages to China’s air force in terms of speed, range and on-station time, allowing it to perform longer endurance and more complex missions. Adding aerial refueling capability to the aircraft would further extend its reach and total mission time.
It would also be able to fly at higher altitudes to provide better radar coverage, especially with a “look down” capability to spot and track low-flying aircraft and missiles that radars below might not be able to see.
The plane’s new radar systems also reportedly improves its detection of stealth aircraft, including U.S. F-22 and F-35 fighters, designed with low radar cross-sections, potentially diminishing the advantages of the advanced US aircraft.
As The War Zone reports:
Aircraft like the KJ-3000 help Chinese forces extend and support anti-access and area denial bubbles, including around the mainland, Taiwan, and the hotly contested South China Sea, as well as project power further afield.
These latest Chinese military developments should be a wake-up call to American and allied defense officials about China’s sustained military buildup and cutting edge technological advancements and willingness to employ its forces throughout its back yard.
They are also a clear indicator of China’s psychological warfare effort to cow and intimidate its potential foes.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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CCP wants War
A few programmable anti ship mines in the “right places” should rapidly deplete the size of the PLA’s sea forces!
I am getting ready to jump over Peking.
My clear message is,.I am ready to fight the communist China at any place in the world.I support the democratic government of Taiwan one hundred ten percent.
All I have to do is remember their bloated video bragging about their first Aircraft Carrier and how it would overpower anything we had. It turned out to be a rebuilt USED Russin flat top that was left flounder in in port where it almost sunk. So much of what they show us is just cardboard and blustering.
This is why Biden should be charged as a traitor to our country not to mention the communist democrat party. They are an internal organization that is colluding with the CCP to destroy our country. We should shut China off with doing any business in our country. People in our country should ashamed of themselves for doing business with china. We helped them to build the military they have today. Every American that gets killed by the CCP, we will have helped the CCP accomplish that. Make no mistake Biden and his entire family are traitors to our country and they should be treated as such.