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‘Blow to US strategic superiority’? Chinese media fuels suspense
over ‘hypersonic missile that circled globe to hit target’
18 Oct, 2021 02:38
FILE PHOTO © US Air Force / Handout via Reuters
Beijing has delivered a “blow to the US' mentality of strategic superiority,” according to a Global Times editorial, which neither confirmed nor denied claims that China tested a hypersonic missile, catching US spies by surprise.
The news of a hypersonic missile test was unveiled by the Financial Times in a bombshell report, citing five unnamed sources. The Chinese military allegedly conducted the launch back in August, in which a glide vehicle was deployed into low-earth orbit, where it circled the entire globe towards its target. And while the report emphasized that the missile purportedly missed its target by nearly two dozen miles, it nevertheless came as a big ‘surprise’ to the US intelligence community.
“We have no idea how they did this,” one source was cited as saying, while two others noted the test demonstrated that China had made “astounding progress” and was “far more advanced” in hypersonic weapons research than US officials thought.
The FT scoop triggered an avalanche of follow-up media reports, all citing the same unnamed officials, as well as speculation by military experts and pundits. However, not a single acting US military or intelligence official went on record to corroborate the claims.
Chinese officials also kept silent on the issue. However, the Chinese state-backed outlet Global Times, often seen in the West as an unofficial ‘mouthpiece’ of Beijing, ran an editorial on Sunday, neither confirming nor denying the claims, but acknowledging that the US “generally has the ability to monitor global missile launches.”
“If the FT report is to be believed, it means that there is a key new member in China's nuclear deterrence system, which is a new blow to the US' mentality of strategic superiority over China,” it said. The paper went on to emphasize that “greater survivability and penetration ability of Chinese nuclear missiles is clearly being accelerated through a variety of new missiles.”
The Chinese publication also praised what it called an “unstoppable trend that China is narrowing the gap with the US in some key military technologies.”
China doesn't need to engage in an ‘arms race’ with the US – it is capable of weakening the US' overall advantages over China by developing military power at its own pace.
“China has no intention to engage in a nuclear arms race,” Global Times editor Hu Xijin added in a tweet. “But it'll certainly improve quality of its nuclear deterrence to ensure that the US abandons the idea of nuclear blackmail against China, or using nuclear forces to fill the gap as US conventional forces cannot crush China.”
In recent years, US officials repeatedly voiced concerns that hypersonic missiles being created by both Beijing and Moscow pose a significant threat to America's national interests. Washington has redoubled its efforts to develop hypersonic tech after Moscow unveiled a whole range of advanced weaponry back in 2018. Russia has since become the first nation in the world to have deployed a hypersonic glide vehicle into service.
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'Shameful milestone': 10,000 Yemeni children killed or maimed
in violence since 2015 – UNICEF
19 Oct, 2021 13:07
Picture taken April 5, 2021. © Reuters / Ali Owidha
Ten thousand Yemeni children have been killed or injured since a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 after an Iran-aligned group ousted the government, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said.
Speaking on Tuesday to a UN briefing in Geneva, the agency's spokesperson James Elder shared the "shameful milestone," remarking that the number of 10,000 deaths or injuries of children accounts to "four children every single day".
"These are of course the cases the UN was able to verify. Many more child deaths and injuries go unrecorded, to all but those children's families," he added.
Elder also unveiled other grim statistics on the reality Yemeni children face, revealing that four out of every five kids need humanitarian assistance – over 11 million youths. The spokesperson also said 400,000 minors suffer from severe acute malnutrition, while 8.5 million women and children do not have access to safe water, sanitation or hygiene.
However, "at the current funding levels, and without an end to fighting, UNICEF cannot reach all these children. There is no other way to say this – without more international support, more children – those who bear no responsibility for this crisis – will die", he warned.
Children almost always pay the price for the madness of men
Yemen was plunged into a Civil War in 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured the capital of Sanaa. Saudi-led forces then swooped in March 2015.
The conflict has ravaged the nation and its people. The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet described Yemen as the "world's worst humanitarian crisis" earlier this month ahead of a narrow vote that saw the United Nations Human Rights Council end the mandate of experts investigating war crimes in the country.
In other words, Saudi Arabia runs the UN.
Washington must be going MAD: Nuclear-era logic of Mutually Assured
Destruction will make America safe, Chinese media boss jibes
21 Oct, 2021 15:06
The editor-in-chief of a Chinese state media group subtly mocked the US, suggesting it re-adopt the Cold War doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) after Washington was shocked by Beijing’s missile tests.
The Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin mocked Washington in a tweet on Thursday after a week in which the US reiterated its concern and surprise by Chinese hypersonic missile tests in the summer.
Hu was responding to a story published on Thursday from The Financial Times, which stated that China conducted two hypersonic missile tests this summer, and not one as originally reported at the weekend.
“In face of speculation of China’s hypersonic weapons, the US needs to keep rationality and returns to the logic of major power game in the nuclear era. MAD [Mutually Assured Destruction] won’t make the US unsafe,” the state media boss wrote.
“The US must abandon the crazy idea that it can strike China and Russia, but they can’t strike it,” Hu added.
MAD is a doctrine associated with the Cold War era, when both the US and the Soviet Union built up sizeable nuclear arsenals. The doctrine is based on the theory of deterrence, in which neither side will use nuclear weapons against the other on the principle that the other party has the capacity to strike back in equal force.
The abbreviation ‘MAD’ was developed ironically, with its creator, Donald Brennan, suggesting that holding weapons which could wipe out humanity was irrational.
Irrational is a rather weak term for this - madness is much more appropriate. Building kazillion dollar weapons with no intention of ever using them when children on several continents are being sold by their parents because they can't afford to feed them. That's madness!
On Saturday, The Financial Times reported that China had tested a space-capable hypersonic missile in August – it could also carry a nuclear payload. It has since been reported that two missiles were tested in the summer.
Washington has claimed it was surprised that China had caught up with Washington. On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden admitted he was concerned by the news.
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US Army and Navy successfully test three hypersonic weapon prototypes
- Pentagon
21 Oct, 2021 16:41
© Raytheon Missiles & Defense / Handout via Reuters
The US Army and Navy have successfully conducted three new tests of hypersonic weapon components, according to the Pentagon. The components will be integrated into a hypersonic missile system set to go live in 2022.
Last weekend, it was reported that China had conducted a hypersonic missile test. A day or two later, it was 'upped' to two tests by China. So, today, the USA reported that they had just conducted three hypersonic-related tests. They couldn't settle for one or two, they had to do three so as to outdo China. Have you ever heard anything so childish in your life? And these are the people with the nuclear codes in their possession. Can there be any hope for the world apart from Jesus Christ?
Conducted at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the tests were aimed at helping “inform the development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) offensive hypersonic strike,” according to a Thursday statement from the Pentagon.
The tests took place on the same day that President Joe Biden admitted he was concerned about Chinese hypersonic weapons capabilities.
Both Army and Navy expect to conduct a flight test of the completed weapon at some point in the next 12 months. Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound.
While China denied US accusations that it had conducted a test of nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles in August, Russia tested its own Tsirkon hypersonic missile earlier this month, successfully firing the high-tech projectile from a nuclear submarine. On Thursday, Moscow also confirmed another successful test of a missile capable of carrying hypersonic warheads.
Beijing has mocked the US' worried response to China's weapons development, with the editor-in-chief of a Chinese state media group suggesting on Thursday that Washington return to the Cold War-era “mutually assured destruction” doctrine of deterrence, based on the rationale that neither side would strike first knowing that the other had the capacity to wipe out its enemy.
The jibe came in response to a new Financial Times report claiming that China had conducted two missile tests during the summer, not one, as the paper had originally reported.
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