Taiwan Develops Advanced Missiles

Taiwan's Hsiung Feng III missile displayed during Taiwan's national day parade in Taipei. Taiwan rolled out its top military weaponry with the aim of stirring China and boosting nationalist fervor

This year Taiwan started to deploy supersonic anti-ship missiles in response to China’s growing naval arsenal. Those third generation Hsiung Feng missiles that are now positioned on some 20 ships point to a strengthening in Taiwan’s normally low-key domestic missile production. But its military might is growing at a time when relations with Beijing are better than ever.

U.S.-South Korea War Games Raise China’s Hackles

China views the military exercises in the Sea of Japan as a threat to its territorial integrity. Beijing’s indignation appears calibrated to push back at U.S. dominance in the region.

As far as Beijing is concerned, the U.S.-South Korean joint air and sea military exercises that took place this week in the Sea of Japan were a direct threat to China’s territorial integrity.

For days now, China’s state-controlled media have been beating the drums of war with editorials, each more confrontational than the last.

“What will Americans feel if the Chinese or Russian military travel across the ocean to hold their exercises in the high seas not far from the coast of Florida, New York or California?” demanded an editorial writer in Tuesday’s English-language China Daily.

Taiwan to Test Long Range Missile: Report

A report recently released announced that they would be testing  a missile that could reach Beijing for the first time ever. Taiwan’s defense ministry immediately denied the announcement but said they were working on “various weapons systems”.

TAIPEI — Taiwan is to test a missile for the first time that could hit Beijing, a report said Wednesday.

Report: N. Korea’s Kim, China’s Hu to Meet

Kim Jong-Il and Chinese President Hu Jinato were scheduled to meet in Beijing today. Speculation says that this visit may lead to the restart of the sic-party nuclear talks. “It is predicted that the summit talks between North Korea and China will be held on Thursday,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is expected to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Thursday in a move that some hope will trigger the return of six-party denuclearization talks, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

Kim is believed to have arrived in China early Monday by train via the border city of Dandong, Yonhap reported earlier this week, citing unnamed sources in Seoul and Beijing.

China Gains Influence in Korean Affairs as North and South Warily Seek Its Help

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will travel to China under growing pressure at home to make the case for tough international sanctions against North Korea. China, which supplies an estimated 70 percent of North Korea’s trade, is the one country that can provide the necessary economic pressure to push the isolated North to the brink of collapse — or, as many hope, press it to agree to concessions over its nuclear weapons program.

On Friday, President Lee Myung-bak will travel to China under growing pressure at home to make the case for crucial Chinese support for tough international sanctions against North Korea if, as is widely expected, the North is found responsible for the sinking of a South Korean ship. But he is unlikely to win that support, experts say, a reflection of China’s growing role in the Korean Peninsula.

Obama Calls for Joint Action to Safeguard Nuclear Stocks

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev and President Obama

President Obama called on world leaders “not simply to talk, but to act” to secure or destroy vulnerable stockpiles of nuclear materials. Obama told fellow leaders Tuesday morning that it was time “not simply to make pledges, but to make real progress for the security of our people.”

Saying that the prospect of nuclear terrorism had emerged as one of the greatest threats to global security, President Obama called on world leaders “not simply to talk, but to act” to secure or destroy vulnerable stockpiles of nuclear materials.

Mr. Obama, addressing a plenary session Tuesday of the 47-nation nuclear security conference he had convened here, told fellow leaders Tuesday morning that it was time “not simply to make pledges, but to make real progress for the security of our people,” according to excerpts of his prepared remarks released by the White House. “All this, in turn, requires something else, something more fundamental,” Mr. Obama continued in his remarks. “It requires a new mindset — that we summon the will, as nations, as partners, to do what this moment in history demands.”

Taiwan Says Researching High-Tech Missiles

Taiwan has announced it is researching development of missiles. Taiwan is seeking to shore up a balance of power against China, which has threatened to attack if the island tries to declare independence and outpaces it in military buildup.  The United States is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and therefore is proceeding with caution, not to upset China.  Though, the United States is obliged under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help in the island’s defense.

Taiwan is researching development of high-tech missiles on a road to “peace through strength” with China, military officials on the self-ruled island said on Tuesday.

The notion of producing its own missiles is being advanced as Taiwan’s main arms supplier, the United States, exercises caution on arms sales to the island, sure to enrage China as Washington and Beijing try to ease political and trade tensions.

China Testing Ballistic Missile ‘Carrier-Killer’

Chinese Medium Range Ballistic Missile

Admiral Robert Willard, PACOM commander, disclosed that China was “developing and testing a conventional… [medium-range ballistic missile] designed specifically to target aircraft carriers.”  While the system had been heard in rumor and speculation for sometime, this was the first official acknowledgment of its existence.  If deployed, Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles would be the first capable of targeting a moving aircraft-carrier from a long-range. This would almost certainly shift the balance of power in the Pacific.

Last week, Adm. Robert Willard, the head of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), made an alarming but little-noticed disclosure. China, he told legislators, was “developing and testing a conventional anti-ship ballistic missile based on the DF-21/CSS-5 [medium-range ballistic missile] designed specifically to target aircraft carriers.”

What, exactly, does this mean? Evidence suggests that China has been developing an anti-ship ballistic missile, or ASBM, since the 1990s. But this is the first official confirmation that it has advanced to the stage of actual testing.

Japan’s Top Nuclear Envoy Due in Seoul for Talks on N. Korea

Akitaka Saiki, Japanese Director-General, Asian and Oceanian Affairs

Japan’s chief negotiator in six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear ambition will visit South Korea this week for talks with his counterparts here on the resumption of the nuclear negotiations, an official at Seoul’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Akitaka Saiki, director-general of the Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau at Japan’s foreign ministry, will arrive here Friday for a meeting with South Korean diplomats on the southern island of Jeju.

“Saiki will likely stop by in Seoul before or after his trip to Jeju for talks” with his South Korean counterpart Wi Sung-lac, the ministry official said while speaking on condition of anonymity.

China Wants to Restart North Korea Nuclear Talks Soon

China plans on negotiating with North Korea and ultimately ending their nuclear weapons program within the coming months.  The goal of the Chinese government is to restart the six-party talks and have a diplomatic relationship with the country.

BEIJING — China hopes to revive stalled negotiations on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program within the next few months, an official newspaper reported Friday.

The comment from Beijing’s envoy to the six-country talks follows a flurry of diplomatic efforts in recent weeks to prod North Korea into rejoining the negotiations. Envoys held a number of bilateral meetings aimed at restarting the process that has been stalled since last year.

“China’s goal is to restart the six-party talks in the first half of this year. That’s our expectation, but it is difficult to say if this will be realized,” envoy Wu Dawei was quoted as saying by the official China Daily newspaper.