The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force recently expelled foreign aircraft threatening China's territorial airspace with J-20 fighter jets, giving full play to the aircraft's stealth capability. Experts said on Tuesday that PLA forces are well-equipped and well-trained in dealing with all sorts of threats.
As the first combat unit of the PLA Air Force that is fully equipped with J-20 fighter jets, the Wang Hai Air Group under a brigade of the PLA Eastern Theater Command carried out missions that safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, including combat alert patrols in the East China Sea and the Taiwan Straits, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday.
In an emergency sortie mission, the leader of the air group Yang Juncheng and pilot Wei Xin took off with two J-20 fighter jets to intercept two foreign aircraft. The two closely coordinated, took advantageous positions and resolutely safeguarded China's airspace security, CCTV reported.
"The J-20's stealth capability is its biggest advantage. It means that the enemy radar can see nothing, but we can already launch attacks," Wei told CCTV.
"You can imagine how much psychological pressure the enemies would have. They can only take hasty evasive maneuvers to avoid our threats. If we push forward, they would fall back," Wei said.
With an outstanding combat history of downing and damaging 29 hostile aircraft in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), the Wang Hai Air Group has recently completed key missions including the routine management of control of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, combat alert patrols in the South China Sea, and patrols around the island of Taiwan, flying across the Bashi Channel, the Miyako Strait and the Tsushima Strait in the process, according to CCTV.
"When I look down on the motherland's precious island [of Taiwan] from the cockpit of my warplane, I could clearly see the island's entire coastline and mountain range," Yang was quoted by CCTV as saying.
"I told myself at the time, I will come again, as [the island of Taiwan] is our country's territory, and [the Taiwan Straits] have no line [dividing us]," Yang said.
The defense authority on the island of Taiwan releases its monitoring of PLA aircraft activities around the island on a daily basis, but it had failed to report a spotting of a stealth-capable J-20 as of press time.
A brigade under the PLA Western Theater Command, which is the first unit to receive delivery of the J-16 fighter jet, also carried out combat alert patrol missions that saw foreign warplanes expelled.
In a recent nighttime patrol, pilot Li Chao was approached by two foreign fighter jets. Li had to break away from the pursuit by shutting off all active electronic devices and flying low, before closing in on one of the foreign aircraft from its tail, gaining the upper hand, CCTV reported on Saturday.
Equipped with advanced warplanes of different types and well trained, PLA units deployed across the country are ready at all times to take measures against unidentified aircraft flying into their watch, including expelling such planes when necessary, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
