Stealth Race: China test flies Chengdu J-20 ‘Black Eagle’ [Russia Today/Youtube]

A Russia Today news report on Youtube explores how China’s fifth-generation fighter J-20, though built in China is also reliant on parts from the U.S. and Russia. This is unlike the U.S. and Russia where the F-22 and Sukhoi T-50 are largely indigenous fighters.

The interview also reveals because of this, China may not necessarily have the critical production capability to go beyond prototypes and build an entire fleet. From China’s track record of deconstructing technology (legal or otherwise, see China: Intellectual Property Infringement, Indigenous Innovation Policies, and Frameworks for Measuring the Effects on the U.S. Economy by the United States International Trade Commission), I would disagree. It seems only a matter of time before they figure out how to do it on their own.

China’s confirmed it’s conducted a successful test flight of its new stealth fighter. Following on the heels of the U.S. and Russia, it is now the third country to put a stealth prototype into the air. (Russia Today, in Youtube, Jan 11, 2011)

Filed under: Aviation, Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, Influence, International Relations, J-20, military, Russia, Strategy, Technology, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.S., Youtube

China’s spying seeks secret US info [Yahoo/AP]

Comprehensive piece on a new breed of spies for China arising. It argues that China has been aggressively recruiting American citizens for secret US info and intel to further its own military and strategic development.

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China’s spying seeks secret US info
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA, AP National Writer
Associated Press
Source – Yahoo News, published Sat May 7, 2011

AP – This 2009 picture provided on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 by his family shows Glenn Shriver at a birthday … Photo: AP

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The young man stood before the judge, his usually neatly trimmed hair now long enough to brush the collar of his prison jumpsuit. Glenn Duffie Shriver had confessed his transgressions and was here, in a federal courtroom with his mother watching, to receive his sentence and to try, somehow, to explain it all.

When the time came for him to address the court, he spoke of the many dreams he’d had to work on behalf of his country.

“Mine was to be a life of service,” he said. “I could have been very valuable. That was originally my plan.”

Filed under: AP, Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Influence, International Relations, J-20, military, Spying, Strategy, Yahoo 7 News

Good for the Goose, good for propaganda: China steals Top Gun clip [Guardian]

Regardless of the authenticity of the said dogfight scene, the fact that the clip was quickly removed from the CCTV website means that the propaganda machine is now quite aware that very little escapes the piercing eyes of netizen and technology.

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Good for the Goose, good for propaganda: China steals Top Gun clip
Proud bulletin on state TV news about air force training contains dogfight scene lifted from Tom Cruise movie
Tania Branigan in Beijing
Source – Guardian, published Friday 28 January 2011

China‘s air force is again under close scrutiny as internet users pore over images of its fighter pilots in action. For the second time in a month pictures of military manoeuvres – this time aired by the state broadcaster – have spread rapidly across websites and blogs.

This time the craft is not the country’s new stealth fighter; and the reaction is not excitement but amusement. Sharp-eyed viewers have spotted that a key clip came straight from the film Top Gun.

China Central Television News last week broadcast a training exercise by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force with one plane firing a missile at another. But an observant viewer spotted that the resulting explosion matches a blast from the final fight scene in the Tom Cruise movie.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, CCTV, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Guardian, Influence, J-20, Media, military, Nationalism, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Strategy

Chinese fighter ‘has changed power balance’ [The Age]

Chinese fighter ‘has changed power balance’
Dan Oakes
Source – The Age, published January 15, 2011

The world has been shocked by the unveiling of the J-20, a new Chinese stealth fighter aircraft. Photo: Reuters

THE shock unveiling of a new Chinese stealth fighter aircraft has changed Asia’s power balance and means Australia must dramatically rethink its regional strategy, according to an Australian analyst.

Peter Goon, a vehement critic of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Australia has committed to buying from the United States, says the Chinese J-20 is far superior to the American fighter and Australia must immediately adapt to the new status quo.

The Chinese tested the J-20 for the first time last week, on the day that US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates arrived in Beijing for talks. Although the Chinese claimed the timing was coincidental, Mr Gates expressed concerns about the military’s motives.

Filed under: Australia, Aviation, Beijing Consensus, Domestic Growth, Economics, Influence, International Relations, J-20, military, Nationalism, Public Diplomacy, The Age, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

China flexes weapons muscles [Straits Times]

This report allays some fears of China’s growing military power by asking the analysts with vested interest in how if the Chinese military new toys really work. Reportedly, most of the new hardware remains not ready for service – Professor Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre on American Studies at Renmin University, said as much. ‘Since 1980, not a single PLA soldier, not a single PLA weapon has been battle-tested,’ he said. ‘We all have to calm down and realise that these weapons are still a long way from being ready.’

It is probably important to remember here – Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), something the Chinese have been largely abiding to for a while now.

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China flexes weapons muscles
Military superpower? Not so fast
By Peh Shing Huei, China Bureau Chief
Source – Straits Times Review, published January 14, 2011

IT’S a stealth fighter. It’s a carrier missile killer. It’s looking like very exciting times for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

Two news breaks in recent weeks suggest that the world’s largest standing army is seemingly fast taking on a spectacular modern sheen.

The J-20 stealth jet took its first test flight on Tuesday, the crown jewel in the Chinese air force’s Jian-series of fighters. It would not reassure China’s neighbours or United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who was on a fence-mending trip to China during the test, that ‘Jian’ means ‘annihilate’ in Chinese.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Communications, Influence, International Relations, J-20, Mapping Feelings, military, Nationalism, Politics

China’s military development targets no country [China Daily]

China’s military development targets no country
Xinhua
Source – China Daily, published January 12, 2011

BEIJING – A Chinese military official said Tuesday that China’s military hardware development is not aimed at any other country.

Guan Youfei, deputy director of Foreign Affairs Office of the Defense Ministry, made the remarks while responding to a question on the reported test flight of J-20 stealth fighter jet.

“The development of China’s military hardware is not aimed at any other country or any specific target and the timing was a matter of routine working arrangements,” said Guan.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Daily, Chinese Model, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Influence, International Relations, J-20, Mapping Feelings, Media, military, Nationalism, Strategy, xinhua

China’s Push to Modernize Military Is Beginning to Show Fruit [New York Times]

Muscles on show as a form of deterrence – the prototype of China’s Chengdu ‘Black Eagle’ J-20 Stealth Fighter – A decade of aggressive modernization of China’s once-creaky military is beginning to bear fruit, and both the Pentagon and China’s Asian neighbors are increasingly taking notice.

Here is a photo – looks remarkably similar to the F22!

Chinese prototype stealth fighter the J-20. Photo - china-defense.blogspot.com

Also covered elsewhere in Australia’s ABC news – Chinese Stealth Fighter spotted (Jan 05, 2011)

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China’s Push to Modernize Military Is Beginning to Show Fruit
By MICHAEL WINES and EDWARD WONG
Source – New York Times, published January 05, 2011

BEIJING — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, on a mission to resuscitate moribund military relations with China, will not arrive in Beijing for talks with the nation’s top military leaders until Sunday. But at an airfield in Chengdu, a metropolis in the nation’s center, China’s military leaders have already rolled out a welcome for him.

It is the J-20, a radar-evading jet fighter that has the same two angled tailfins that are the trademark of the Pentagon’s own stealth fighter, the F-22 Raptor. After years of top-secret development, the jet — China’s first stealth plane — was put through what appear to be preliminary, but also very public tests this week on the runway of the Aviation Design Institute in Chengdu, a site so open that aircraft enthusiasts often gather there to snap photos of their favorites.

Some analysts say the timing is no coincidence. “This is their new policy of deterrence,” Andrei Chang, the Hong Kong editor in chief of the Canadian journal Kanwa Defense Weekly, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “They want to show the U. S., show Mr. Gates, their muscle.”

Filed under: Aviation, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Domestic Growth, Economics, Influence, International Relations, J-20, Media, military, Nationalism, New York Times, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities