Chinese military upgrades thanks to U.S.

By Jon Dougherty

China has managed to upgrade its military rapidly because of technology transfers from the United States and, to a lesser degree, Israel, according to an official with Taiwan’s National Defense University.

The communist nation’s military has made significant advances in recent years in the field of information warfare, thanks to “timely help” from the U.S., said Lt. Cdmr. Hsu Ming-huang, an instructor at the university.

Also, said Hsu, “according to studies by U.S. military analysts, the Chinese military has greatly improved the accuracy and attack capabilities of its Dong Feng-15 [DF-15; export version known as M-9] … missile through technological assistance provided by Israel.”

“China has acquired from the U.S. in recent years top-end products and technology such as supercomputers, encryption know-how and technology for the production of fiber optics and microprocessors,” Hsu told a press conference at the university, which is based in Taoyuan.

His comments were published by the Taipei Times newspaper yesterday. He quoted from research performed by a colleague, Prof. Chung Chien of Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University.

Hsu also said China had managed to improve the attack performance of its DF-15 missiles — also known as the CSS-6 — with Israeli technological assistance.


DF-15 missiles atop mobile launchers during a military parade in Beijing in 2000

Israel had planned to sell China a pair of AWACS aircraft equipped with Israeli-made PHALCON radar last year, but pressure from the U.S. killed the sale. China was set to pay $250 million each for the aircraft, and the systems were to be mounted aboard Russian-made Il-76 aircraft.

During his speech, Hsu warned against the continued Chinese military modernization programs and military buildup with technical assistance received from other powers.

The Taipei Times said one Taiwanese intelligence source had previously disclosed that the primary reason China had managed to improve its weapons programs so dramatically — especially its missile programs — was Beijing’s acquisition of three U.S.-made supercomputers through Japan.

The supercomputers gave China the ability to design rockets and missiles more quickly and accurately, taking most of the guesswork out of mathematical and trajectory problems inherent with missile guidance systems.

Hsu said most of China’s advances came around 1995 and 1996, but did not say when China had acquired the supercomputers.

However, he did say that in the summer of 1995, China fired M-class missiles into seas surrounding Taiwan, as a method of intimidation, but few of those missiles hit their intended target sites.

The following year, prior to Taiwan’s election, China again began launching M-class missiles during “exercises” meant to intimidate Taipei. Hsu said almost all of those hit intended target zones.

U.S. technical assistance in the field of fiber optics came to a head in February when U.S. and British warplanes bombed an Iraqi radar command-and-control complex just south of Baghdad.

U.S. and Western intelligence officials said Chinese engineers were helping Baghdad build a fiber-optics air-defense system capable of linking Iraq’s vast array of air-defense radars into a single station that was located outside the southern no-fly zone.

Currently, Iraqi radar sites are vulnerable to American and British anti-radiation missiles, which can be fired from a distance and which are designed to home in on outgoing radar signals.

The fiber-optics network reportedly would have been able to receive targeting data from radar sites in remote locations near Baghdad, then transmit that data via buried fiber-optic cables to individual air-defense sites scattered around the country.

U.S. officials have said such a capability would greatly enhance Iraq’s ability to down U.S. and British jets still patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones because the air-defense sites would no longer require individual radars.

Yesterday, the Washington Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials said a second Chinese missile base housing CSS-6 and CSS-7 missiles was operational in the Nanjing military district, opposite Taiwan.

The paper said intelligence officials, using satellite imagery, had tracked the missiles two weeks ago. They were taken by train from a factory in central China to the new base, located several miles northeast of Xianyou and some 135 miles from Taiwan.


DF-15 missile during launch at a test range in China

In all, about 100 missiles are located there and at a second base, near Yongan. A third base is located at Leping, a regional headquarters for all missile forces and harbors up to 100 CSS-6 missiles, said the Times.

U.S. officials reported an increase in Chinese missile deployment in early February as well.

According to an analysis by the Federation of American Scientists, the DF- series of missiles have modern technological qualities, such as updated navigational systems and solid, rather than liquid, fuel.

The CSS-6 “is a sophisticated solid-fueled, single-stage mobile missile, similar in appearance to the U.S. Pershing I-A system,” said FAS. “The M-series missiles all use solid fuel, and operational preparation time is short. The DF-15 is expected to be equipped with a variety of warhead types and to become the mainstay of China’s sub-strategic missile force.”

The missiles have a range of 125-370 miles, and a warhead of 500 kgs [about 1,100 pounds].

“The DF-15 utilizes a Chinese-developed eight-wheel cross-country Transporter Erector Launcher [TEL] with both launch and transport capacities,” FAS said. “These highly-mobile cross-country trucks have the capacity to launch the missiles. It is coordinated with advanced digital C3I computer system using digital computer-controlled technology and self-test functions to provide an operational preparation time of less than 30 minutes.”

Besides increasing its missile capabilities, Hsu also said China was preparing to begin construction of its first indigenously built aircraft carrier later this year and is scheduled to become operational by 2006.

“The aircraft carrier is to be built on the basis of what the Chinese navy has learned from a decommissioned carrier it bought from Australia,” Hsu said.

Military analysts say that means China is likely to be doing what it often does as it acquires superior, foreign-made technology: reverse-engineer it.

“After the first carrier has become operational,” Hsu added, “the Chinese navy will build one new carrier every two to three years” – about the same length of time it takes the U.S. to build its carriers.

Hsu said China would “not necessarily plan to use the aircraft carriers against Taiwan,” but would probably “aim at projecting power into the Pacific Ocean.”

The National Defense University professor also said China was increasing its numbers of rapid reaction troops.

“From the late 1980s on, the Chinese military has increased its rapid reaction troops to 300,000 in total. The number is to further grow to 500,000 in the future,” he said.

China reportedly has a 2.8-million-man active army, with a comparable number of troops in reserve and in the armed police force.

Some U.S. experts say that few of those troops, however, are adequately trained.

Nevertheless, Hsu said the reaction forces “will integrate elite troops from all services, including the army, navy, air force and the artillery corps. They will be used to engage the enemy in all sorts of terrain and warfare.”

“They are the force on which a Chinese victory in any regional war will depend in the future,” he added.

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Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.