It is great to see that the U.S. is now stepping up to help India prevent Chinese land grabs going on in the high Himalayas between the two countries:
A convoy of Indian Army trucks drive along a road to Tawang, Oct. 21, 2021, near the Line of Actual Control (LAC), neighboring China, near Sela Pass in India’s Arunachal Pradesh state
India was able to repel a Chinese military incursion in contested border territory in the high Himalayas late last year due to unprecedented intelligence-sharing with the U.S. military, U.S. News has learned, an act that caught China’s People’s Liberation Army forces off-guard, enraged Beijing and appears to have forced the Chinese Communist Party to reconsider its approach to land grabs along its borders.
The U.S. government for the first time provided real-time details to its Indian counterparts of the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion, says a source familiar with a previously unreported U.S. intelligence review of the encounter into the Arunachal Pradesh region. The information included actionable satellite imagery and was more detailed and delivered more quickly than anything the U.S. had previously shared with the Indian military.
It made a difference.
The subsequent clash on Dec. 9 involving hundreds of troops wielding spiked clubs and Tasers did not result in any deaths as previous encounters have, rather it was limited to a dozen or so injuries and – most conspicuously – a Chinese retreat.
“They were waiting. And that’s because the U.S. had given India everything to be fully prepared for this,” the source says. “It demonstrates a test case of the success of how the two militaries are now cooperating and sharing intelligence.”
Maybe the Japanese Navy should start sailing around some of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea in response to this latest violation of Japanese territory:
Tokyo lodged a series of diplomatic protests with Beijing last week after China sent several coast guard vessels, including one armed with a deck-mounted machine gun, near its islets in the East China Sea.
Four Chinese coast guard ships passed the 12-mile territorial limit around the Senkakus eight times in three separate incidents on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, a Japanese coast guard spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday. Each ship stayed in those waters for less than 24 hours and left without incident.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs complained to the Chinese Embassy in Japan and to officials in Beijing on all three days, a ministry spokesman said by phone Monday.
This disapproval of group tours is largely seen as payback against South Korea for restricting Chinese travel during China’s COVID crisis this past winter:
China on Friday shunned South Korea in its second batch of countries allowed for Chinese group tourists, a move widely seen as a form of political complaint.
The Chinese culture ministry added 40 foreign countries, including France, Italy, Denmark, Portugal and Iran, but not South Korea, to its list of officially permitted destinations for group tour packages for Chinese people, starting Wednesday.
China gave South Korea the cold shoulder in its initial batch of 20 such countries released on Jan. 20. The United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Russia and Indonesia were among the list.
Friday’s move is widely viewed as an expression of Beijing’s unresolved feud against Seoul’s previous anti-COVID-19 measures on entrants from China, Hong Kong and Macao during the virus’ surge in winter.
Entry into South Korea has gotten a little bit easier for Chinese travelers:
The South Korean government on Wednesday lifted the post-entry PCR test requirement for travelers from China.
Health authorities had initially disclosed that quarantine measures for arrivals from China will be eased further amid a decline in the infection rate among arrivals from that country.
The latest move comes after the government had required travelers from China to take a PCR test for COVID-19 upon arrival and suspended short-term visa issuance as of January 2, following a resurgence of the pandemic in the neighboring country.
It looks like the Chinese are now violating the territorial waters of Japan for spy purposes as well:
This Chinese navy survey vessel entered Japan’s territorial waters southwest of Yakushima, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. (Japan Ministry of Defense)
Tokyo lodged a diplomatic complaint with Beijing on Sunday after a Chinese navy vessel entered Japan’s territorial waters off the southern tip of its main islands, according to Japanese government statements.
A Shupang-class survey ship crossed the 12-mile territorial limit around Yakushima, an island 40 miles south of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, at approximately 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that day.
The vessel remained for slightly less than two hours before exiting to the southwest of neighboring Kuchinoerabu island, the statement said.
The survey vessel’s intrusion was the first of the year by the Chinese navy, according to the Ministry of Defense website. Shupang-class survey vessels made five intrusions in 2022, according to the ministry.
Well if the U.S. is supposedly flying these balloons over China why didn’t they shoot them down and show the world the evidence?:
In this image made from video, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gestures as he speaks during a media briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. (Liu Zheng/AP)
China on Monday said more than 10 U.S. high-altitude balloons have flown in its airspace during the past year without its permission, following Washington’s accusation that Beijing operates a fleet of surveillance balloons around the world. The United States denied that it operates any surveillance balloons over China.
The Chinese allegation came after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had crossed from Alaska to South Carolina, sparking a new crisis in bilateral relations that have spiraled to their lowest level in decades.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details about the alleged U.S. balloons, how they had been dealt with or whether they had government or military links.
You can read more at the link, but this sounds like more Chinese lies that is intended for their domestic audience that can’t get any other information other than from the government.
Here are what Korea experts are saying about the China spy balloon controversy:
This image provided by the U.S. Navy shows sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recovering a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Sunday. AP-Yonhap
Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said an intensifying U.S.-Sino rivalry is not favorable to the security situation on the peninsula, adding, “We would see China’s role regarding North Korea’s nuclear issue diminishing following the balloon saga.”
Cho said it is noteworthy that South Korea and the U.S. staged combined air drills involving strategic bombers and stealth fighters over the West Sea, which is right under China’s nose.
“South Korea and the U.S. conducted combined air drills, involving B-1B strategic bombers, and F-22, F-35A and F-35B stealth jets, over the West Sea on Feb. 1. Two days later, another drill with the stealth fighters occurred, which is unprecedented,” he said.
“Given that the U.S. first detected the balloon on Jan. 28, the drills served as a U.S. warning to China in response to the spy balloon.”
Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said China has always been part of the North Korean problem rather than part of the solution.
“Beijing would occasionally allow incremental stronger U.N. resolutions in response to egregious North Korean provocations only to subsequently turn a blind eye to violations of those resolutions by Chinese entities,” he said.
You can read more at the link, but Bruce Klingner is right, China has no intentions of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. They are more than happy to pretend to be trying to solve the issue from time to time without actually doing anything.
I think North Korea knows that China will more publicly have its back at the UN making it more likely they will go ahead with more provocative ICBM and nuclear tests in the future.
