Return of wolf warriors? China bangs drum loudly after US ship sails near Spratly Islands

Return of wolf warriors? China bangs drum loudly after US ship sails near Spratly Islands
Return of wolf warriors? China bangs drum loudly after US ship sails near Spratly Islands

“China’s actions point to a ratcheting up of pressure in support of spurious claims over the Nine-Dash Line,” one analyst told Breaking Defense.

SPACECOM Head Touts Space, High Seas Parallels

SPACECOM Head Touts Space, High Seas Parallels
SPACECOM Head Touts Space, High Seas Parallels

“The behavior of some of our adversaries in space is surprising. If similar actions had been taken in other domains, they’d likely be considered provocative, aggressive, or maybe even irresponsible,” said SPACECOM Commander Gen. Jim Dickinson.

House OKs More Subs, Pumps $250M More Into Industrial Base

House OKs More Subs, Pumps $250M More Into Industrial Base
House OKs More Subs, Pumps $250M More Into Industrial Base

CAPITOL HILL: In the drama-free weeks leading up to Thursday’s overwhelming passage of the compromise $716 billion defense policy bill by the House of Representatives, lawmakers sent a pretty clear signal to the White House: we want more submarines. With concerns rising over the growing prowess of Russian and Chinese undersea capabilities, and standoff air…

Israel Deploying to Eastern Europe, Pacific for First Time Alongside U.S. Forces

Israel Deploying to Eastern Europe, Pacific for First Time Alongside U.S. Forces
Israel Deploying to Eastern Europe, Pacific for First Time Alongside U.S. Forces

The Trump Pentagon is undergoing a major shift to focus on great power competition. And it’s looking for allies to step up in places that might come as a surprise.

Quarantine? What Are American Options for the South China Sea?

Quarantine? What Are American Options for the South China Sea?
Quarantine? What Are American Options for the South China Sea?

Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who had expressed serious reservations about Rex Tillerson, President Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of State, said Sunday afternoon they would vote for him, pretty much assuring his elevation. The most combustible part of Tillerson’s testimony was about how to handle a rising China’s actions in the South and East…

Chinese Scarborough Shoal Base Would Threaten Manila

Chinese Scarborough Shoal Base Would Threaten Manila
Chinese Scarborough Shoal Base Would Threaten Manila

UPDATED with Sen. McCain & Dean Cheng comments WASHINGTON: If China builds an artificial island on the disputed Scarborough Shoal, Sen. Dan Sullivan warned today, it will complete a “strategic triangle” of bases that can dominate the South China Sea. At this morning’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sullivan displayed a map (above) of the region…

Few Choices For US As China Militarizes South Pacific

Few Choices For US As China Militarizes South Pacific
Few Choices For US As China Militarizes South Pacific

WASHINGTON: Leading Republicans hastened today to denounce China’s deployment of anti-aircraft missiles to the South China Sea. But what can the US actually do about it? The arrival of the sophisticated HQ-9 missiles in the Paracel islands — claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan but occupied by China — is just the latest step in Beijing’s steady extension…

‘Absolute Nightmare’ As Chinese Destroy South China Reefs; Fish Stocks At Risk

‘Absolute Nightmare’ As Chinese Destroy South China Reefs; Fish Stocks At Risk
‘Absolute Nightmare’ As Chinese Destroy South China Reefs; Fish Stocks At Risk

UPDATED: Obama Calls On China To Halt Reclamation On Reefs WASHINGTON:  China is destroying swaths of coral reefs in one of the most important fisheries in Asia and causing enormous environmental damage as it builds the fake islands it is putting up in the South China Sea, To get some idea as to just how extensive China’s…

Carter To China: US ‘Will Fly, Sail, Operate Wherever Law Allows’

Carter To China: US ‘Will Fly, Sail, Operate Wherever Law Allows’
Carter To China: US ‘Will Fly, Sail, Operate Wherever Law Allows’

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in a speech billed as all about a new personnel approach for the Pentagon, laid out a clear line in the sand of the temporary islands the Chinese have been building. He reiterated his “deep concern” about  “China’s pace and scope of land reclamation in the South China Sea.” Then he let…

SecDef Carter Tells McCain Chinese Can Come To RIMPAC

SecDef Carter Tells McCain Chinese Can Come To RIMPAC
SecDef Carter Tells McCain Chinese Can Come To RIMPAC

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Ash Carter — for now — is resisting congressional calls to uninvite China from the biggest naval exercise in the world, known as RIMPAC. In a July 16 letter to Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain, Carter goes to some lengths to avoid offending China, on the one hand, and, on the…

China Challenges P-8 Crew, On Video; Top Senators Condemn PRC

China Challenges P-8 Crew, On Video; Top Senators Condemn PRC
China Challenges P-8 Crew, On Video; Top Senators Condemn PRC

UPDATE: Exclusive McCain Comment; Senate Staffer Chides White House For Inaction WASHINGTON: In a dramatic example of the increasing friction in the Spratly Islands between China, the United States and most of China’s neighbors, the US Navy today released a video of a P-8 surveillance plane crew as the PLA Navy challenges it while the plane…

2013: Time For US Strategy To Get Real

As the old year dies, Breaking Defense has asked its expert Board of Contributors to look ahead at the next (click here for the whole 2013 forecast series). Today we hear from Col. (retired) Douglas Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran of the first Gulf War, prolific author, and a passionate skeptic of conventional strategic wisdom.…

Allies Offer US Strong Advantages, And Some Risk, In China Rivalry

America counts heavily on a cordon of allies stretching from Japan to the north down to Thailand, and across to India, in the highly unlikely event of war with China. But these same allies could draw the U.S. into strictly local disputes in which America does not always have a clear security interest and which…

Shocks From Chinese Political Scandal Spread From Beijing To Philippines

The rare and remarkable case of Bo Xilai, a top Chinese leader embroiled in a corruption and murder scandal, marks the biggest and deepest political scouring of China’s leadership since the Cultural Revolution and it is rippling through the polity, affecting the country’s ability to manage national security and diplomacy. Not since the fall of…