Two More Chinese SSBNs Spotted

 ”More Love Letters From Our Most Favored Nation”   by SK Johnson   10-14-07

The United States trade debt was $57.6 billion in August of this past year.

The amount of manufacturing jobs in this country have plummeted in recent years.

China has made billions off of our bad trade deals with them.

So, what have they been doing with the money?

 Let’s investigate that a bit:

—–The Financial Times, Sept. 3, 2007: “The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American officials. “

—-Things like these, which may be DF-25’s (description following) have been built:

—”The land-based mobile-launch DF-25 is a a two-stage solid-fuel missile with a range of 1,700 kilometers. While the ranges of DF-25 and DF-21 are approximately the same, the nuclear-tipped DF-21 has a throw-weight of 600kg, compared to the conventionally armed DF-25’s 2,000kg. The DF-25 is derived by removing the third stage from the three-stage DF-31 and substituting a modified second stage. Potential missions of the DF-25 include providing rapid fire support over long distances to defend the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.” (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/theater/df-25.htm)

—”Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases?” -Donald Rumsfeld

—SHANGHAI, China — Construction has begun on what China says will eventually be the world’s biggest shipyard, part of the country’s plan for taking a dominant role in the industry (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2…6/6/94147.shtml)

—06/09/2005 Gertz article on how ’suprised’ the intel community is about China’s military buildup.

“A highly classified intelligence report produced for the new director of national intelligence concludes that U.S. spy agencies failed to recognize several key military developments in China in the past decade, The Washington Times has learned. “

“Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Singapore over the weekend that China has hidden its defense spending and is expanding its missile forces despite facing no threats. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also expressed worries this week about China’s expanding military capabilities.
Among the failures highlighted in the study are:
•China’s development of a new long-range cruise missile.
•The deployment of a new warship equipped with a stolen Chinese version of the U.S. Aegis battle management technology.
•Deployment of a new attack submarine known as the Yuan class that was missed by U.S. intelligence until photos of the submarine appeared on the Internet.
•Development of precision-guided munitions, including new air-to-ground missiles and new, more accurate warheads.
•China’s development of surface-to-surface missiles for targeting U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups.
•The importation of advanced weaponry, including Russian submarines, warships and fighter-bombers.
According to officials familiar with the intelligence report, the word “surprise” is used more than a dozen times to describe U.S. failures to anticipate or discover Chinese arms development.”

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Chinese dragon awakens
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/specialreport/200…22138-1088r.htm

China is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials.
U.S. defense and intelligence officials say all the signs point in one troubling direction: Beijing then will be forced to go to war with the United States, which has vowed to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.
China’s military buildup includes an array of new high-technology weapons, such as warships, submarines, missiles and a maneuverable warhead designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses. Recent intelligence reports also show that China has stepped up military exercises involving amphibious assaults, viewed as another sign that it is preparing for an attack on Taiwan.
“There’s a growing consensus that at some point in the mid-to-late ’90s, there was a fundamental shift in the sophistication, breadth and re-sorting of Chinese defense planning,” said Richard Lawless, a senior China-policy maker in the Pentagon. “And what we’re seeing now is a manifestation of that change in the number of new systems that are being deployed, the sophistication of those systems and the interoperability of the systems.”
China’s economy has been growing at a rate of at least 10 percent for each of the past 10 years, providing the country’s military with the needed funds for modernization. The combination of a vibrant centralized economy, growing military and increasingly fervent nationalism has transformed China into what many defense officials view as a fascist state.
“We may be seeing in China the first true fascist society on the model of Nazi Germany, where you have this incredible resource base in a commercial economy with strong nationalism, which the military was able to reach into and ramp up incredible production,” a senior defense official said.
For Pentagon officials, alarm bells have been going off for the past two years as China’s military began rapidly building and buying new troop- and weapon-carrying ships and submarines.

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China (along with Russia) have been engaging in joint military war games involving exercises practicing amphibious landings. This is what it looked like:

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Thanks to google map, several new submarines that our friends the Chi-comms have made have shown up for all the world to see:

(http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2007/10/two_more_chinese_ssbns_spotted.php)

By Hans M. Kristensen
(BLOG UPDATED OCTOBER 10, 2007)

China appears to have launched two more ballistic missiles submarines from the Bohai shipyard at Huludao approximately 400 km east of Beijing. This could bring to three the number of Jin-class (Type 094) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) launched by China in the past three to four years.

The two submarines were discovered during analysis of newly published commercial satellite images on Google Earth. This is the second time in three months that FAS has discovered new Chinese ballistic missile submarines on commercial satellite images. The first time was in July 2007, when the first Jin-class was disclosed on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

The submarines on the new image have the same dimensions as the previous submarine.

So How Many Do They Have?

Whether China has now launched two or three Jin-class SSBNs is still unclear. The image of the first SSBN discovered at Xiaopingdao in July 2007 was taken on October 17, 2006. The new image of the two SSBNs at Huludao was taken six and a half months later on May 3, 2007. One possibility is that the Xiaopingdao SSBN returned to Huludao for repair or further adjustment and was captured on the 2007 photo together with the second SSBN. Another possibility is that the two Huludao SSBNs are indeed the second and third boats of the new Jin-class SSBN.

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence estimated in December 2006 that “a fleet of probably five TYPE 094 SSBNs will be built in order to provide more redundancy and capacity for a near-continuous at-sea SSBN presence.” China has not stated how many SSBNs it plans to build and there is no authoritative information available in the public that confirms that China plans to build five SSBNs. It might, but it might also build less if it decides that three or four are sufficient.

Some Implications

The new Jin-class SSBNs add to the single and unsuccessful Xia-class (Type 092) that China launched in 1982. The Xia has never conducted a deterrent patrol and its operational status is in doubt. The rapid launch of two or three Jin-class SSBNs indicate that the Chinese navy feels confident it has overcome at least some of the technical problems that curtailed the Xia.

Each Jin-class appears to have 12 launch tubes for the new Julang-2 sea-launched ballistic missiles that are currently under development. If Julang-2 and three Jin-class SSBNs become fully operational, it would enable China to deploy up to 24 ballistic missiles at sea, assuming one boat would be in overhaul at any given time (and the Xia is still not operational). The range of the Julang-2 is estimated by the US intelligence community at more than 8,000 km (4,970+ miles), which brings Hawaii and Alaska [Editor's note: This isn't just for Taiwan  -SK Johnson ](but not the continental United States) within reach from Chinese territorial waters.

[emphasis added]

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Who do we have to thank for this fiasco?  Senators that supported increased trade to communist China, particularly by giving them ‘Most Favored Nation’ trade status.  The culprits among the presidential candidates?  Fred Thompson, John McCain, and Sam Brownback.  When confronted with the issue by Duncan Hunter in the recent Michigan GOP debates all Fred could say was, “free trade has been good for our country.”

None of the current candidates, except for Duncan Hunter, have made trade with China a main issue of their campaign, and very few have shown any desire to plot a new course in policies in trade with China.  Duncan Hunter is not a protectionist, he is merely wanting trade deals that give an even playing field so that we are not cheated.  Even Adam Smith, who was a huge proponent of free trade said that it is “advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign imports,” for the “the defense of the country,” and “for the encouragement of domestic industry.”  This is exactly what Hunter is advocating.   We will not advocate free trade if the nation we are trading with wants to tariff their goods so that we lose immense amounts of money.

As Duncan also says, this has become a national security issue because it has become impossible to find American manufacturers that will build items needed for our troops in Iraq.  Sometimes, goods needed could only be found in countries that wouldn’t trade with us because of our Iraq policy.

Duncan Hunter is the man to trust to bring our trade deals back to the table with China in order to save our industries, and perhaps even our entire country’s defense against the ones we’re paying to build up their military.

Keep on Hunting,

-SK Johnson

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