Thread: Chinese president boasts of new Stealth fighter jet

China gains advanced weapons technology through espionage

Chinese president boasts of new Stealth fighter jet

By Jim Kouri
Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is expected to visit with President Barack Obama next week, boasted that China’s military tested its first Stealth fighter jet, according to the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that he was told by the Chinese leader that the maiden test-flight of the advanced fighter jet wasn’t connected to his visit to the Chinese capital of Beijing. In a series of Internet postings, Chinese citizens were told that their nation successfully flew a J-20 stealth fighter jet that promises to rival anything that exists in the United States.

While the Obama White House desires stronger military contacts as one of the tangible gains it hopes to win from Chinese President Hu’s visit to Washington next week, he is not expected to address the rampant Chinese espionage within the U.S. military and private-sector corporations such as Lockheed-Martin and Boeing.

The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain’s MI5 suspect upwards of 15 foreign intelligence services are working within the UK and are a threat to the United Kingdom’s interests, and the primary focus of their counterespionage efforts are the Chinese and Russians.

Using many of the same methods the Japanese used in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, the Chinese are interested in any and all information that may give them a leg up in the competitive global economy as well as increasing their military prowess.

In spite of repeated warnings to businesses, companies in the US and UK continue to hire Chinese workers without conducting thorough background investigations or verifying previous employment.

Chinese government officials and businessmen are proven aggressive in their attempts to find out everything about how Western companies operate and how they are structured. It is old-fashioned human intelligence gathering—it’s thousands of years old and it works. Taking a page out of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,â€

China confirms stealth fighter jet testsSpeaking during visit to Beijing, US defence secretary Robert Gates says Chinese president Hu Jintao confirmed plane's first test flight

Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 11 January 2011 14.49 GMT



An aircraft that is reported to be the Chinese stealth fighter, in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

Hu Jintao today confirmed that China had carried out its first test flight of a stealth fighter jet, the US defence secretary has said.

Robert Gates, who is in Beijing for talks intended to improve military ties between the countries, said the Chinese president had told him the jet's trial had not been arranged to coincide with his visit.

"I asked President Hu about it directly, and he said that the test had absolutely nothing to do with my visit and had been a pre-planned test," Gates told reporters.

Asked whether he believed that, he added: "I take President Hu at his word that the test had nothing to do with my visit."

A Pentagon official told Reuters that Hu and other civilian leaders at the meeting with Gates did not appear to be aware that the J-20 flight had happened before the US questioned them about it.

"When Secretary Gates raised the question of the J-20 test in the meeting with President Hu, it was clear that none of the civilians in the room had been informed," the official said.

Hu's confirmation came after accounts and pictures of the J-20 prototype's short flight appeared on Chinese websites. The fighter is believed to have flown over an airfield in the south-western city of Chengdu for about 15 minutes.

Photographs said to show the aeroplane going through runway tests had previously been seen, but Hu's comments were the first official acknowledgement of the project.

Some interpreted the timing as a sign that Beijing had heeded calls for greater transparency about its military programme, while others thought it more likely to be a show of strength.


Robert Gates and Hu Jintao. Photo: Larry Downing/AFP/Getty Images

Reports suggest China's progress in developing a rival to the US F-22 stealth fighterhas been faster than expected, although it is thought it will take years before the plane is in service.

The F-22 is the only operational stealth fighter, although the US is developing the F-35 joint strike fighter, and Russia's Sukhoi T-50 is expected to enter service in about 2015.

The Associated Press reported that people who answered calls at government and Communist party offices in Chengdu and at the J-20's developer, the Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Group, had refused to comment.

China's military modernisation programme and heavy investment in new technology such as the Dongfeng anti-ship missile is reducing the military gap with the US and tilting the power balance in the region.

Gates acknowledged that China's development of military equipment had outpaced US intelligence estimates and said it "clearly [has] potential to put some of our capabilities at risk".

He is meeting civilian leaders, having agreed minor improvements in military to military links during meetings with the Chinese defence minister, General Liang Guanglie, yesterday .

Both sides said stronger ties were needed, and Liang made a point of warning the US against selling further arms to Taiwan. Beijing suspended military exchanges last year in protest at such a deal.

The Chinese military's budget has soared to 532bn yuan (£52bn), although last year's increase of 7.5% was the smallest for more than two decades.

Outside experts believe the real level of funding is far higher, although it is still thought to lag well behind that of the US.

"Some countries, which have a far better international security situation than China, have world-leading levels of military research," the army's official newspaper, the Liberation Army Daily, wrote in an article on Gates's visit today.

"In such circumstances, China should not be unjustly excoriated for developing a few modern weapons."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ja ... -jet-tests

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China: a force fit for a superpower

The technology and firepower of the People’s Liberation Army are growing so fast that observers are no longer curious but concerned, says Malcolm Moore.

By Malcolm Moore 7:28PM GMT 10 Jan 2011
327 Comments

It has been a month to remember for the top brass of China’s People’s Liberation Army. While other armies fret about their funding, China’s generals have unveiled three major new weapons that could challenge the military supremacy of the United States and provide the firepower to underline China’s superpower status.

In a dry dock in the northern city of Dalian, smoke has begun to billow from the chimneys of the Shi Lang, a hulking Soviet-era ship that China bought from Russia and has refitted to become its first aircraft carrier. Named after a Qing dynasty admiral, the carrier is slated to make its maiden voyage later this year, four years ahead of schedule. Five more aircraft carriers could bolster the Chinese fleet further over the next decade.

Meanwhile, at an air base in the central city of Chengdu, China’s first stealth fighter jet has been spotted taxiing along a runway. It has yet to take off, but American plane-spotters have already begun speculating that it might be able to beat an F-22 in a dogfight. Finally, at a command bunker in the north of Beijing, the Chinese Second Artillery Corps controls the jewel in the crown – a new missile that could sink a US aircraft carrier, the first such weapon in the world. The Dong Feng (or East Wind) 21D missile is now “operationalâ€