In a speech commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule, Chinese President Xi Jinping has a message to his own 1.4-billion Chinese people, and the world, especially the United States – “There is no force that can shake the foundation of this great nation. No force can stop the Chinese people and the Chinese nation forging ahead“.

 

The president ended his less than 10-minute speech with – “Long live the great Communist Party of China. And long live the great Chinese People!” Although he did not specifically mention any other country by name, obviously the Chinese president was referring to President Donald Trump, who started the US-China trade war (and later tech war).

 

In his speech on Tuesday (Oct 1), Xi also said that the central government would “maintain long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau” – suggesting that any plan by internal or external forces to separate the two territories away would not be entertained. Earlier on Monday night, he pledged to maintain the “One Country, Two Systems” on Hong Kong and Macau.

Mr. Xi proudly said absolute poverty, a problem that has plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years, is coming to an end, thanks to the remarkable achievements made by the Chinese people in the past 70 years. But unity is an important guarantee for the Chinese people and the Chinese nation to overcome all the risks and challenges, says the Chinese leader.

 

Xi Jinping and leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and state paid tribute to deceased national heroes at Tiananmen Square – the Martyrs’ Day. Interestingly, Xi Jinping is the first top Chinese leader born after 1949, the year when Mao Zedong announced the birth of New China on Oct 1, 1949. But millions of eyes were focused on something else – military parade.

 

All attention, both domestic and foreign, were on “Dongfeng 41”. Beijing unleashed 16 transporters carrying DF-41 ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) at the National Day parade. The DF-41, China’s most advanced nuclear missile, has an operational range of more than 14,000 kilometers and can carry about 10 independently nuclear warheads.

This means the DF-41 is the world’s longest range missile, surpassing the range of the U.S. LGM-30 Minuteman-III which has a reported range of 13,000 kilometres. As of 2017, the U.S. has in its possession 400 Minuteman-III missiles, the land-based ICBM in service since 1970. The revelation of the DF-14 means the Chinese are capable of hitting anywhere on Earth.

 

In essence, the DF-41 (literally means “East Wind-41”), Chinese’ fourth-generation strategic nuclear weapon, could reach the United States in 30 minutes. According to the Washington Free Beacon website, the DF-41 was first tested on July 24, 2012. In November 2017, just two days before US President Trump’s visit to China, the DF-41 was tested in the Gobi desert as a show of strength.

 

To hit the U.S. in 30 minutes, it means the DF-41 ballistic missiles will have a top speed of Mach 25 (30,626 km/h; 19,030 mph) – approximately 8.5073 km/s. At such speed and with its capability of throwing multiple (up to ten) nuclear warheads to hit separate targets in the U.S., clearly the big gun was designed to evade missile defence systems.

On January 23, 2017, China was reported to have deployed a DF-41 strategic ballistic missile brigade missile brigade to Heilongjiang province, bordering Russia, together with another strategic ballistic missile brigade to Xinjiang – indicating that the missile was no longer in development phase but has been fully tested and is already operational.

 

Dongfeng-17, or DF-17 – believed to be China’s first hypersonic missile, was also on display. Once launched, it is designed to release a hypersonic glide vehicle that can cruise at relatively low altitude and speeds above Mach 5 (about 3,400 miles an hour), changing direction if needed. That allows the “glider” to evade current missile defense systems.

 

Defence analysts believe that the DF-17 is the first hypersonic missile capable of flying at more than five times the speed of sound – and the first such weapon deployed anywhere in the world. Sam Roggeveen, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, said – “There’s simply nothing like it in any Western military force.”

Lockheed Martin, which has won the largest share of new U.S. hypersonic contracts, expects test flights of its first prototype missiles next year, with potential production in the early 2020s. Russia’s hypersonic glide vehicle, trumpeted by President Vladimir Putin as early as March 2018, reportedly will be ready for war only by 2020.

 

Currently, the U.S. does not have any defense system against hypersonic weapons, which can travel a little more than a mile per second. Combined with blistering speed, long-range flight and maneuverability, these weapons are absolutely difficult to track, target and defeat. Hence, the Pentagon has identified hypersonic missiles as among its highest priorities in its development for military defence systems.

 

One highlight of the parade that took many defense experts by surprise was a pair of UUVs (unmanned underwater vehicles). Displayed for the first time by Beijing, the UUVs were so new that it didn’t have a name – only code “HSU001” was written on it. Some analysts said they resembled the Orca extra-large UUV, which is being built for the U.S. Navy by Boeing.

Early this year, the U.S. Navy awarded Boeing a US$43-million contract to build four Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs). It was designed based on its Echo Voyager unmanned diesel-electric submersible. The 51-foot-long submersible is launched from a pier and can operate autonomously while sailing up to 6,500 nautical miles without being connected to a manned mother ship.

 

Other toys included a stealthy combat aerial drone called the Gongji-11, or GJ-11, and a supersonic reconnaissance drone identified by some experts as the DR-8 (also known as the Wuzhen-8, or WZ-8). The GJ-11 has a wing design similar to that of an American B-2 strategic bomber – designed to sneak undetected into enemy airspace and to fire missiles at targets.

 

It was of paramount importance for China to show off its latest weapon to highlight the country’s ambition to enforce claims to Taiwan, not to mention the South China Sea and other disputed territories. The absence of short and medium-range ballistic missiles such as the DF-11, DF-15, DF-16 and DF-21 during this year’s parade is to challenge superpower U.S. as the region’s dominant force.

The People’s Liberation Army, already the world’s biggest military with 2 million men and women in uniform and the second-highest annual spending (US$250 billion) after the United States (US$650 billion), also is working on fighter planes, the first Chinese-built aircraft carrier and nuclear-powered submarines.

 

China has about 280 nuclear warheads, compared with 6,450 in the United States and 6,850 in Russia. Beijing says it wants a “minimum credible nuclear deterrent” but won’t be the first to use atomic weapons in a conflict. In January, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said – “China has developed nuclear, space, cyberspace and other capabilities that can reach potential adversaries across the globe.”

 

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October 1st, 2019 by financetwitter

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