Tag: South China Sea

It is not unusual for governments, international organizations, and private groups to constantly assess the power of countries. The assessments often measure and categorize countries in terms of diplomatic, economic, military, political, foreign aid, foreign investment, and cultural, among other indicators, clout. Such studies are a good way to track change over time in countries […]

According to an article published by the U.S. Southern Command, Chinese fishing vessels have aggressively violated maritime boundaries and conducted illegal fishing operations as far away as South America in older to sustain China’s massive demand for seafood. This entanglement isn’t purely economic, and comes with reverberating effects within both security and environmental circles the […]

The Chinese military has released footage showing the successful testing of the country’s version of the U.S. GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB). According to the state-owned news agency Global Times earlier this week, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the Chinese defense giant North Industries Group Corporation Limited (NORINCO) successfully tested a powerful […]

The Chinese military has released footage showing the successful testing of the country’s version to the U.S. GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB). According to the state-owned news agency Global Times, earlier this week, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the Chinese defense giant North Industries Group Corporation Limited (NORINCO) successfully tested a powerful […]

Images have recently surfaced on social media suggesting that China may be preparing to test a ship-mounted electromagnetic rail gun. The weapon system was first tested some three years ago, and reports of it being mounted on the deck of a People’s Liberation Army-Navy warship first surfaced late last year. Electromagnetic rail guns can fire projectiles […]

Diplomatic tensions between the United States and China have risen throughout the developing trade predicament between leaders, but in the nearby South China Sea, American and Chinese forces have long been staring one another down from either side of the horizon. The People’s Liberation Army’s massive modernization and reorganization effort, which has included the launch […]

For decades now, the U.S. Navy‘s submarine force has served as an addition to the nation’s already formidable ability to project power onto foreign shores, serving as a submersible launch platform for the Navy‘s workhorse Tomahawk cruise missiles. These submarines weren’t toothless when it came to other ships, of course, relying on torpedoes to serve […]

A Vietnamese fisherman caught a bit more than he bargained for earlier this week, when he hooked what appears to be a Chinese torpedo about four miles off the Vietnamese coast. Although the fisherman, Tran Minh Thanh, snagged the torpedo only about four miles from shore, it remains likely that if it is indeed a Chinese […]

Analyzing threats to national security requires a geopolitically and chronologically macro-perspective. That’s increasingly difficult to adopt for an American public that is so deeply entrenched in a political system that chases daily headlines and that considers national policy to be in its twilight every three to six years as the nation prepares for a shift […]

Culture, particularly through movies and television, could be considered the United States’ most influential export. Our movies and shows find their way into just about every market and go on to shape the perceptions the world has of our nation and of themselves. It would seem that, at least in the case of one Chinese […]

The United States military recently began transitioning its training and operational practices away from the past two decades worth of anti-terror and counter-insurgency warfare, placing a larger emphasis on the resurgence of near-peer level threats posed by the likes of Russia and China. This sort of power competition is something the United States may be a […]

Tensions in the South China Sea have been rising steadily in recent years, thanks to China’s declared sovereignty over the entirety of the massive waterway, despite competing claims from no fewer than five other nations with established international norms on their side. The United States, in particular, has taken issue with China’s claimed ownership of […]