The leaked documents provide a snapshot of US intelligence officials

Beijing drills as a test of the US-Russian relationship in the early 1990s: What do the US and China say about Taiwan?

Beijing said that they were a necessary move to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

On Saturday, Beijing launched the drills, a day after Taiwan’s President came back from her trip to the United States and Central America.

Asked if the costs of such a visit were too high, Wu told CNN, “China cannot dictate how Taiwan makes friends. China can’t dictate how friends show their support for Taiwan.

The end of a civil war more than 70 years ago led to the unification of Taiwan and China. Taiwan transitioned from authoritarian rule to a democracy in the 1990s and is now ranked one of the freest jurisdictions in Asia by Freedom House, a US-based non-profit organization.

However, China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing island as its territory, and in recent years, as his power has grown, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made clear his ambitions to “reunify” with the island – by force if necessary.

“We are still trying to figure out what he says and what that means through the French government,” Wu said, though he noted the “French government has been showing support to Taiwan.”

The US is obligated to provide Taiwan with defensive weaponry but officials don’t often specify whether the US will defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.

A set of highly classified Pentagon documents that leaked online last week in an apparent major security breach reveal American intel gathering on its key partners, adversaries and competitors, including China.

The documents show the extent of the United States’ involvement in the Russian war effort and the relationship it has had with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Many of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.

China’s response to the Ukrain crisis: CNN reaches out to the ministry of foreign affairs of the country if it wants to attack inside Russia

An entry in one document says that China might increase its aid to Russia if NATO were to launch strikes on targets inside Russia.

The US and its allies have not said that China has supplied such aid, and Beijing has denied the claim. It has, however, bolstered economic ties with Russia over the past year. CNN reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

The US government did not want to give Ukraine missile systems because of fears that they would be used to strike inside Russia. US-supplied weapons have been pledged not to be used by the Ukrainians.

Ukraine typically does not comment on questions about its involvement in the limited number of attacks that have taken place inside Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea since the start of the war.

Beijing has yet to publicly comment on the document leak, but there has been some coverage about it circulating in its domestic media, including an article by the overseas edition of the Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.

Despite scandals involving the US surveillance of its allies, it seems the US is still not stopping.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/china/china-pentagon-documents-leak-ukraine-intl-hnk-mic/index.html

DF-27, a “developmental” hypersonic glide vehicle, and the US Department of Defense warning against a future invasion of China

The February 25 flight test of the “developmental” DF-27 was described by One as an intermediate range missile-class multirole hypersonic glide vehicle. The document says that the weapon has a high chance of penetrating US missile defense.

Missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles are designed to fly more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver in flight, making them almost impossible to shoot down, according to experts. China is one of the world’s most advanced hypersonic weapon development programs.

Another entry includes notes on a recent People’s Liberation Army Navy deployment, which the document notes was the first time the Yushen LHA-31 helicopter-carrying assault ship was included in an extended area deployment.

Signals intelligence includes intercepted communications and is broadly defined by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radars, and weapons systems.”

One document attributed to a signals intelligence report said that Jordan’s Foreign Ministry in late February planned to assure Beijing about its interest in a continued economic relationship, after Beijing reportedly complained that Chinese companies were not involved in the country’s 5G network rollout.

The brief also said, without providing a source, that Nicaragua “probably would consider offering Beijing naval access in exchange for economic investment.” China has not stated it wants to buy military bases or get military access in the country.

The US Department of Defense said over the weekend that they are still reviewing and assessing the validity of the documents, while standing up an intervention effort to assess their impact on the US and its allies and partners.