Important Takeaways:
- NATO’s Concern Over China’s Military Expansion: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte highlighted the rapid growth of China’s military capabilities, describing it as “staggering” and a potential threat to global security.
- China’s Support for Russia: Rutte emphasized China’s economic and military support for Russia, particularly in the context of the Ukraine conflict, noting that such alliances pose risks not only to Europe but also to the Indo-Pacific and North America.
- Joint Military Exercises: China has been conducting military exercises in the western Pacific, including activities involving the aircraft carrier Shandong near U.S. allies such as the Philippines. These actions coincide with joint patrols and counterterrorism exercises with Russia and Belarus near NATO member Poland.
- NATO’s Strategic Focus: The alliance is debating whether to extend its focus beyond the Atlantic and European regions to address challenges posed by China’s growing influence and its partnerships with countries like North Korea and Iran.
- China’s Response: The Chinese government has criticized NATO’s stance, accusing the alliance of overstepping its boundaries, provoking confrontation, and engaging in hegemonic behavior.
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Important Takeaways:
- CHINA has paraded its terrifying new invasion barges that connect up to form a runway for attack vehicles – which could be used to storm Taiwan.
- Satellite pictures show the huge hybrid vessels lining up to form a floating bridge, amid a spate of war drills involving the army, navy and rocket force.
- China has been flexing its military muscles to intimidate Taiwan, which has hit back with increased drills of its own.
- The satellite images show three specialized barges, each with two arms of roadway, lining up next to each other.
- They connect to form a continuous bridge along which invading ground vehicles such as tanks could trundle ashore.
- Huge retractable legs anchor the barges to the seabed like stilts.
- Analysts have likened the purpose-built barges to the floating Mulberry Harbors used by allied forces during the D-Day landings in June, 1944.
- At least five of the mobile bridges will soon be operational, according to military sources.
- Some experts have doubted whether China would be able to cross the Taiwan Strait with sufficient speed and numbers for an invasion.
- But this new system is the latest effort to make it possible – and could suggest the army is gearing up for an attempt, according to experts.
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Important Takeaways:
- China staged military drills off Taiwan’s north, south and east coasts on Tuesday as a “stern warning” against separatism and called Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te a “parasite,” as Taiwan sent warships to respond to China’s navy approaching its shores.
- The exercises, which China has not formally named unlike war games last year, are happening after a rise in Chinese rhetoric against Lai and follow on the heels of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Asia visit, during which he repeatedly criticized Beijing.
- Taiwan’s government condemned the drills, with the presidential office saying China was “widely recognized by the international community as a troublemaker” and that the government has the confidence and ability to defend itself
- Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
- Two senior Taiwan officials told Reuters that more than 10 Chinese military ships had approached close to Taiwan’s 24 nautical mile (44 km) contiguous zone and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond.
- China’s foreign ministry said the drills “are legitimate and necessary actions to defend national sovereignty and safeguard national unity”.
- “China’s reunification is an unstoppable trend — it will happen, and it must happen” Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson, said at a regular news conference on Tuesday.
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Important Takeaways:
- “Communist China has now taken war to the heavens, to low earth orbit, and very likely, will take war to the moon, Mars, and beyond. The heavens are no longer safe for the democracies.” — Richard Fisher, International Assessment and Strategy Center, to Gatestone, March 2025.
- “Rising powers, notably China and Russia, saw how reliant we were on space—and how poorly defended our systems were. Our access to the strategic high ground is now more threatened than ever before.” — Brandon Weichert, author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, to Gatestone, March 2025
- China is making fast progress in building space weapons. “The Chinese ISR”—intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance—”capabilities are become very capable,” said Gen. Guetlein. “They have gone from what we used to call a ‘Kill Chain’ to a ‘Kill Mesh.'” A Kill Mesh combines ISR satellites with an array of weapons systems.
- The Chinese array appears impressive. As Fisher points out, the People’s Liberation Army has developed ground-based ASAT—anti-satellite—interceptors to destroy satellites in both low earth orbit and much higher medium earth orbits. At the same time, China, as Guetlein’s comments make clear, is working on “co-orbital” interceptors, satellites that can follow, approach, dock with, or use robotic arms to grapple other satellites into useless orbits.
- For the future, Fisher reports, China is developing large, unmanned space planes that can re-enter the atmosphere to maneuver toward a new orbit and then relaunch into space to deploy energy and missile weapons. The PLA also appears to be working on large combat platforms that can attack satellite targets in multiple orbits. Expect the Chinese military also to deploy clusters of combat satellites to attack the Lunar and Martian satellite networks of the future.
- “The recent demonstration of Chinese ‘dogfighting’ capabilities in space is an indicator that Beijing means to use force on earth. By targeting sensitive U.S. military satellites, the People’s Liberation Army can render us deaf, dumb, and blind, long before it strikes.” — Brandon Weichert, to Gatestone, March 2025.
- The Chinese are evidently planning to blind not only America’s military but also America’s civilian society, which is heavily dependent on space assets. Almost nothing modern in America will work when the Chinese are finished attacking in the heavens.
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Important Takeaways:
- Here are five signs that point to a looming conflict between the U.S. and Iran:
- Military Buildup
- The U.S. has significantly increased its military presence in both the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, deploying B-2 stealth bombers, cargo planes, and aerial refueling tankers, alongside key assets like the USS Carl Vinson and USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carriers.
- These moves signal heightened U.S. preparations. In response, Iran has bolstered its missile capabilities, positioning advanced air defense systems around the Strait of Hormuz, while ramping up military activities in the region.
- U.S.-Israeli Operations and Iranian Proxies
- The U.S. and Israel have both escalated their military operations in the region. In Gaza, Israel’s ongoing airstrikes on Hamas targets have drawn broader regional involvement, with Iran’s support for militant groups adding a layer of complexity to the conflict.
- Iran’s support for various proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and militia groups in Iraq and Syria, has been a consistent point of contention. The U.S. has recently stepped up attacks on the Yemen-based Houthis, which are backed by Iran.
- Sanctions and “Maximum Pressure”
- Economic sanctions have played a pivotal role in the U.S.-Iran standoff. Following Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, the U.S. imposed stringent sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, banking system, and military industry, aiming to cripple its economy and force Iran to comply with nuclear restrictions.
- These sanctions have led to a severe economic downturn in Iran, but they have failed to bring Tehran to the negotiating table. Instead, Iran has continued its nuclear activities, including the enrichment of uranium and missile development. The reimposition of Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, has only heightened tensions, leading to an increasing likelihood of military action if Iran does not alter its course.
- Demonstrations of Military Might
- Both the U.S. and Iran have engaged in significant military posturing. The U.S. has conducted multiple B-52 bomber flyovers near Iran as a show of strength and to signal potential military action. Additionally, U.S. forces have joined with Israel in large-scale drills involving strategic bombers and fighter jets.
- On the other side, Iran has conducted joint naval exercises with Russia and China in the Gulf, further bolstering its military capabilities. Iran has also showcased its missile strength by unveiling “missile cities”, which house its growing arsenal of long-range missiles, and conducting missile tests. These military displays serve as a warning to the U.S. and its allies.
- Letters and Diplomatic Deadlines
- Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran have deteriorated since the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear deal in 2018. Despite some attempts at renegotiation, Tehran has rejected U.S. demands and has increasingly turned to Moscow and Beijing for support.
- Recently, President Trump revealed that he had sent a letter to Tehran, demanding a new nuclear agreement within two months or face significant military consequences. With negotiations stalled and the deadline looming, the diplomatic window for de-escalation is quickly closing, leaving military action as an increasingly likely outcome.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iran, in short, has a nuclear weapons program because of China. For a long time, the international community looked the other way as the “atomic ayatollahs,” in violation of their treaty obligations, worked on building these fearsome devices. President Donald Trump, to his credit, is taking the issue head on.
- Tehran almost certainly has [a nuclear bomb] by now. The Iranians themselves have made that clear. There is only a “one-week gap from the issuance of the order to the first test” of a nuclear bomb, according to an April 2024 public statement of a senior Iran lawmaker.
- Diplomats from Russia, Iran, and China met in Beijing this month to support Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Tehran, bolstered by Beijing and Moscow, publicly said it had no desire to talk to Trump.
- There are in fact conversations behind the scenes, but Iran nonetheless would not be as brazen if Beijing were not fully supporting it.
- If Waltz is as good as his word — that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon — then China, by arming the ayatollahs with nukes, has made sure that the world’s next confrontation will be historic.
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Important Takeaways:
- Beijing has the ability to hit the United States with conventional weapons; compromise U.S. infrastructure through cyber-attacks; and target its assets in space, the Annual Threat Assessment by the intelligence community said, adding the Communist dictatorship also seeks to displace the United States as the top AI power by 2030.
- AFP reports Beijing’s “coercive pressure” against Taiwan and “wide-ranging cyber operations against US targets” flag its growing threat to U.S. national security, according to the assessment.
- Beijing’s military is gearing up to challenge U.S. operations in the Pacific and “making steady but uneven progress on capabilities it would use in an attempt to seize Taiwan,” it concluded, even as U.S. President Donald Trump warns that Beijing’s actions will have consequences.
- Russia, along with Iran, North Korea and China, seeks to challenge the U.S. through deliberate campaigns to gain an advantage, with Moscow’s war in Ukraine affording a “wealth of lessons regarding combat against Western weapons and intelligence in a large-scale war,” the report said.
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Important Takeaways:
- The move is intended to help the US reduce its reliance on imports from countries like China, which dominates the industry for production and processing of many of these important materials.
- The order gives Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in consultation with other executive branch agency heads, the authority to use the Defense Production Act to facilitate the advancement of domestic mineral production.
- The act, which was passed in 1950 in response to production needs during the Korean War, gives the government more control during emergencies to direct industrial production. Trump invoked it in 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- “It is imperative for our national security that the United States take immediate action to facilitate domestic mineral production to the maximum possible extent,” the order states.
- Within 10 days, Trump calls for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to provide a list of all federal lands “known to hold mineral deposits and reserves” and “prioritize mineral production and mining related purposes as the primary land uses in these areas, consistent with applicable law.”
- The order also asks the heads of the Interior, Defense, Agriculture and Energy departments to identify “as many sites as possible” where the construction and operation of private mineral production could take place.
- Trump previewed the action in his joint address to Congress earlier this month, saying, “I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA.”
- On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an executive order declaring a national energy emergency, which said an “active threat to the American people from high energy prices is exacerbated by our Nation’s diminished capacity to insulate itself from hostile foreign actors.”
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Important Takeaways:
- China is one of the United States’ largest creditors, owning about $859.4 billion in U.S. debt. It doesn’t own the most U.S. debt of any foreign country, however.
- Nations borrowing from each other may be as old as the concept of money. Foreign debt provides the opportunity for countries to secure financing that they ordinarily wouldn’t have access to and to stimulate their economy.
- The concept of foreign debt carries a negative connotation, however, especially when it concerns large amounts owed to nations embroiled in controversy. The huge amount of debt that the U.S. government owes Chinese lenders has been the subject of countless debates, headline news stories, and political platforms for decades.
- Japan commands the top spot among foreign creditors with $1.1 trillion, about 3% of total U.S. debt owed by the U.S. government. China holds the number two position with $859.4 billion of U.S. Treasury’s, about 2.6% of the total U.S. debt.
- Consequences of Owing Debt to the Chinese
- It’s politically popular to say that the China “owns the United States” because it’s such a huge creditor but the reality is very different from the rhetoric.
- The U.S. dollar would depreciate and the yuan would appreciate if China called in all its U.S. holdings, making Chinese goods more expensive.
- Although 2.6% of the national debt isn’t insignificant, the Treasury Department has had no problems finding buyers for its products even after a rating downgrade.
- Others would likely step in to service the market if the Chinese suddenly decided to call in all the federal government’s obligations and this isn’t possible because of the maturities of debt securities. This includes the Federal Reserve which already owns six times as much debt as China.
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Important Takeaways:
- Scientists in Beijing have created ‘the world’s most powerful spy camera’ which can pick out facial details from distances exceeding 63 miles (100km).
- It means the spy camera could potentially be in space aboard a floating satellite while clearly seeing faces of people on Earth’s surface.
- It could also take high-resolution images of foreign military satellites operated by other nations that are also orbiting Earth, the South China Morning Post reported.
- The technology, detailed by the scientists in a new paper, could be launched aboard a satellite in the near future.
- Robert Morton, author and member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), called it a ‘massive security concern’.
- ‘Millimeter resolution from 60+ miles up? That’s next-level surveillance,’ he said in a post on X (Twitter).
- The spy camera has been newly developed by China’s Academy of Sciences’ Aerospace Information Research Institute in Beijing.
- It uses a system called synthetic aperture lidar (SAL), a remote sensing technology that sends out a pulse of light energy and then records the amount of that energy reflected back.
- Capable of operating day and night, SAL creates 2D and 3D reconstructions of surfaces of the Earth in various weather conditions.
- Because it relies on optical waves, it’s capable of creating imagery with much finer resolution and better detail – described as a ‘quantum leap’.
- The experts conducted a successful test across Qinghai Lake in China’s northwest, with the SAL device on one side and the target 63.2 miles (101.8km) away.
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