China says its anti-ship ballistic missile can sink U.S. aircraft carriers

China says its anti-ship ballistic missile can sink U.S. aircraft carriers

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Dr. C | 1 Comment
http://cofda.files.wordpress.com/201...pg?w=500&h=301
The Chinese Communist Party is determined to provoke the United States.
A few days ago, China’s state media boasted that Chinese nuclear subs can attack cities on America’s west and east coasts.
Now we’re finding out that at the same time as China was making that threat, on November 2, 2013, Huanqiu (环球网 or Global Network), the Chinese-language edition of Global Times, published an article titled “China’s Anti-ship Missile Has the Capability to Sink U.S. Aircraft Carriers.”

____________________________

Note: Huanqiu clearly is a Chinese government publication. From Huanqiu‘s Introduction or About page:
“www.huanqiu.com was established in November 2007 under the approval of People’s Daily and the [Chinese government's] State Council Information Office, with investments from both People.com.cn and Global Times.”

____________________________

In the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, China’s People’s Liberation Army felt threatened by the U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups and became resolved to study how it would deal with the U.S. military’s involvement in a future war. An important part of the research has focused on how to combat U.S. carrier battle groups.
The Huanqiu article openly views the United States as a potential enemy in a future war and proudly introduces China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, a “carrier killer” that can hit aircraft carriers 2,000 kilometers away. (DF = Dongfeng or East Wind)
The article then says that the United States has “deeply researched” China’s development of anti-ship ballistic missiles. That U.S. research is summarized as a chronological series, beginning with the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis in which China first deployed in combat its DF 21A, as well as launched DF15 ballistic missiles at offshore Taiwan.
The chronology ends with, in 2009, the U.S. Navy Intelligence Bureau confirming that Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles were nearly combat-ready; and in 2010, when U.S. Pacific Command’s Admiral Willard said in an interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, that China already has a ballistic missile “initial operational capability.”
The article is accompanied with a slide show, with text. One of the slides is titled “Western media estimates of the range of China’s anti-carrier ballistic guided missiles”:
http://cofda.files.wordpress.com/201...pg?w=500&h=420
H/t ChinaScope and CODA’s Sol Sanders.
~Dr. C




This entry was posted in China, United States, US-China and tagged DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, Global Times, Huanqiu. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to China says its anti-ship ballistic missile can sink U.S. aircraft carriers

China Reveals Short-Range Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Designed To Dodge Enemy Defenses

The Chinese have their own plans to use the missiles on land and at sea, but also hope to court foreign buyers

November 5, 2018

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China is hardly a stranger to developing medium- and intermediate-range anti-ship ballistic missiles with maneuvering warheads to help exert authority over its broad territorial claims and deny opponents access to wide areas during potential regional conflicts. Now the Chinese have unveiled a new, short-range ballistic missile that could arm shore batteries, its future Type 055 destroyers, and make its way onto the export market as well.

The state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) publicly unveiled the new missile, called the CM-401, at the biennial Zhuhai Airshow, which officially kicked off on Nov. 6, 2018, and also serves as a general arms expo. CASIC had two launch platforms on display at the event, an 8x8 truck-mounted type with two missiles inside self-contained launch canisters and what appeared to be a deck launcher for ships, also with two self-contained missiles.

There are few detailed specifics about the weapon and its launchers so far, but observers believe that the missile itself has a maximum diameter of approximately 2.8 feet. This is similar to that of the Russian Iskander-M quasi-ballistic missile. The CM-401's general shape looks similar to Russia's missile, but it appears to be smaller overall.

The diameter estimate is based on the known dimensions of CASIC’s YJ-62/C-602 ground-launched cruise missile and its associated launch platform. The company had put one of these weapon systems on display right behind the CM-401.

http://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/fo...01-missile.jpg
A Chinese graphic showing a ballistic missile with a skip-glide trajectory associated with the CM-401.

Per CASIC’s display, their new missile has a minimum range of around nine miles and a maximum range of just over 180 miles. This puts it firmly in the short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) category, which typically refers to any such weapon with a range of fewer than 620 miles. The U.S. military also uses the term “close-range ballistic missile” (CRBM) to cover weapons with a range of fewer than 186 miles.

Graphics associated with the CM-401 suggest it has a “porpoising” or “skip-glide” trajectory that involves the warhead abruptly pulling up at least once as it begins the terminal stage of its flight. This maneuver could extend the range of a ballistic weapon, but has only ever been used to give the warhead a much more irregular flight path and allow it to adjust its course.

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This, in turn, makes it harder for an opponent to try and intercept the warhead. The CM-401’s terminal speed, which CASIC says is between Mach 4 and 6, would also help it break through enemy defenses to reach its target. The launch platform reportedly has the ability to fire its two missiles on different trajectories against either one or two targets at once, again increasing the difficulty for the defender to respond to the incoming threat.

This maneuvering capability is also what allows the warhead to engage large, relatively slow-moving targets, such as aircraft carriers and other major surface combatant and logistics ships. A cutaway of the mockup CM-401 missile that CASIC showed off at Zhuhai shows what appears to be a phased array radar in the nose so that the warhead can actively home in on those types of targets during its terminal phase.

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The CM-401 missile mockup, with a cutaway showing what appears to be a phased array radar in the nose.

CASIC says that the CM-401 has a secondary land attack function that could benefit from its defense-breaking maneuvering capability, as well. This could be particularly beneficial for ship-launched versions, giving the weapon added flexibility over existing, dedicated anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles.

The display at Zhuhai suggested the missile could be a future part of the arsenal on board China’s Type 055 destroyers, which are already a modern and capable design that you can read about in more detail here. There is no indication about how many two-missile launchers each ship might carry or whether the vessels might employ an entirely different launch system, such as a vertical launcher.

中国の新型対艦ミサイルシステム「CM-401」の説明版に見覚えのあるフネが…#週刊安全保障 pic.twitter.com/BDpe1gzy6o
— ペトリオットPac-2 (@mV0EfhpA6Kk2445) November 4, 2018

There are also questions given the missile’s size, shape, and skip-glide trajectory about whether the stated maximum range truly reflects the weapon’s actual capabilities. Some observers have indicated that the CM-401, or a variant thereof, might actually be able to reach targets close to 620 miles away, though this seems unlikely given the missile's size. That doesn't mean the weapon might not be able to fly further than 180 or so miles, though.

The reason China might want to understate its range would have to do with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a voluntary arrangement between 35 different countries not to export missiles that can carry a 1,100 pound payload more than 186 miles away. The Chinese government is not a formal party to this agreement, but has said on numerous occasions that it still follows these guidelines as a matter of state policy.

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China's first Type 055 destroyer at its launcher ceremony.

If the specifics are accurate, the CM-401 would be exportable under the MTCR’s limitations. It is also possible that CASIC could make export variants with deliberately reduced range, while providing the longer-range versions to the Chinese military itself.

Though it would have a shorter range than ground-launched YJ-62 and YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, the CM-401's higher terminal speed and ability to dodge enemy defenses would make it a valuable part of Chinese military’s layered anti-ship defenses, particularly in the South China Sea. Situated on any of China’s man-made islands in that region, the anti-ship ballistic missiles would be able to reach targets throughout much of the region.

Here is about what their anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile coverage may look like (from the article). I'd guessed that they'd deploy YJ-62 anti-ship missiles; it sounds like there are YJ-12's out there instead, which would have even a bit longer range than depicted. pic.twitter.com/SXEDO8pIzQ
— Thomas Shugart (@tshugart3) May 3, 2018

Launchers on the Chinese mainland would also be able to hit opponents in the East China Sea, where China has increasingly found itself at odds with Japan over conflicting territorial claims. From those same positions, the CM-401s would be able to hit targets in the Taiwan Strait and on the other side of the island, further putting the Taiwanese Navy’s limited surface combatants at risk. Very few countries have any sort of maritime ballistic missile defense capability at all.

Arming Type 055 destroyers, or other ships, with the CM-401s would only expand the Chinese military’s ability to bring their capabilities to bear in a conflict. It would open up entirely new potential vectors for attack and allow China to simply fire the weapons outside the often narrow coverage area of an opponent’s anti-missile defenses, to begin with.

If it turns out that the missiles do have a range of more than 600 miles, land- and sea-based examples would present an even more serious threat in every one of these scenarios. Ship-launched variants with greater range would also present a challenge for China’s opponents in the Pacific region broadly and possibly beyond as time goes on.

The development of air-launched ballistic missiles is also becoming increasingly widespread, with China itself reportedly developing an aerial version of the anti-ship variant of the DF-21 with a version of the H-6 bomber as the launch platform. Russia has adapted the Iskander-M into an air-launched anti-ship capable weapon that modified MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors can carry, as well. The CM-401 might prove to be a good starting place for a similar aerial missile.

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Chinese DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles on more common road-mobile transporter-erector-launchers.

There are a number of foreign customers that could be interested in an MTCR-compliant variant, too. The most obvious is China’s long-time ally Pakistan, which faces a standing numerical disadvantage in ships against its most likely regional opponent, India.

The Indian Navy is hoping to get its second aircraft carrier by 2023 and is planning to build a third some time afterward. Pakistani land-based CM-401s could force those ships to operate further offshore during a crisis and Pakistan’s ships armed with these missiles could present a new type of threat to India’s capital ships.

Another possible export customer might be Saudi Arabia, which has bought Chinese DF-3 ballistic missiles in the past and has reportedly at least looked into buying more modern DF-21s in recent years. The cramped confines of the Persian Gulf mean would make the CM-401 a formidable weapon against ships and targets on land in any potential skirmish with Iran.

The CM-401 may reflect a larger growth in interest in this type of capability both within the Chinese military and among its foreign partners. The state-owned Chinese Aerospace and Technology Corporation (CASC) also brought an anti-ship missile, the A/MGG-20B, derived from its DF-12/M20 short-range ballistic missile to Zhuhai, though there are few details about its exact capabilities.

There is yet another exportable anti-ship ballistic missile, based on the M20 series, developed by a different company (CASC): pic.twitter.com/AoUPZBjiQF
— BZhRK (@BZhRK1) November 4, 2018

Guangdong Hongda Mining Company also brought a model of its HD-1 ramjet-powered high-supersonic anti-ship cruise missile to the airshow. The company claimed that it had test-fired the weapon, which they dubbed a “carrier killer” and uses a booster to get to the necessary for optimal operation of its solid-fueled integral rocket ramjet motor, for the first time in October 2018.

The HD-1 appears to be primarily aimed at competing with the Russo-Indian BrahMos on the export market, but it could also present an alternative to the lower supersonic YJ-12 series. There are no independently verifiable details on which to judge Guangdong Hongda’s claims that their missile is more capable and cheaper than the BrahMos.

In similar news, we finally have images of the HD-1 supersonic cruise missile, developed by a mining & blasting company (of all things). Unlike its competitor the YJ-12E/CM-302, the HD-1 requires an add-on solid booster. pic.twitter.com/Rub7MOTXPU
— BZhRK (@BZhRK1) November 5, 2018

All told, China looks to be aggressively exploring its options to expand its shore- and sea-based anti-ship missile capabilities as its military works to reinforce its various territorial claims spread out across the Pacific Ocean, otherwise assert its regional authority, and even take on an increasingly global role. The Chinese government is also clearly keen to find ways to make these weapons accessible to their allies and partners abroad.

China’s Got a Powerful New Anti-Ship Missile

The U.S. Navy might need more ships to defend against it

November 8, 2018

China has a potentially powerful new anti-ship missile. And if the Chinese navy deploys it in large numbers, it could complicate the U.S. Navy’s efforts to defend its ships at sea while also maintaining a protective missile shield around overseas U.S. bases, remote U.S. territories and America’s allies in the Pacific region.

The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation displayed the CM-401 anti-ship ballistic missile at the annual air show in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai on Nov. 6, 2018.

Company press materials described the CM-401 as a hypersonic ballistic anti-ship missile that’s capable of maneuverable flight, according to Global Times, a government-controlled newspaper.

The CM-401 reportedly can reach a velocity of six times the speed of sound and has a maximum range of 180 miles. “It has the potential of destroying a hostile vessel with one hit,” Global Times reported.

The new missile, which likely relies on initial targeting data provided by a ship, plane or satellite but apparently includes its own small radar for last-second course corrections, is compatible with ground launchers and launch-canisters for shipboard installation.


The Chinese navy’s new Type 055 destroyer, a rough analogue to the U.S. Navy’s own Ticonderoga-class cruisers, can carry CM-401s, CASIC press materials indicated. Other ship types presumably also are compatible with the new munition.

The CM-401 is a semi-ballistic missile, The War Zone reporter Joseph Trevithick reported. It climbs and dives en route to its target, finally performing a steep climb and equally steep dive during the final moments of flight.

The missile’s erratic flight path and high speed could help to throw off enemy defenses. “Once it begins to dive, it is very difficult to intercept because of its hypersonic velocity,” Global Times claimed, citing an unnamed military expert.

It’s unclear whether, when and in what numbers China intends to deploy the CM-401. CASIC might intend exclusively to sell the weapon on the export market.

If the Chinese military does acquire CM-401s, the new weapon will only enhance an already-formidable missile arsenal that increasingly threatens the U.S. Navy’s access to the western Pacific Ocean.

China possesses DF-21 and DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles and YJ-18 supersonic anti-ship missiles. With is apparent semi-ballistic flight profile, the CM-401 could fill a conceptual niche somewhere between the older missile types.

And the new munition could complicate the U.S. Navy’s planning.

The U.S. fleet operates 92 destroyers and cruisers whose main role is fleet air-defense. With their Aegis radars and Standard missiles, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers could detect and shoot down incoming anti-ship missiles.

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As Chinese anti-ship missiles have grown more numerous and sophisticated, so too have the American warships grown in numbers and capability. In the early 2000s, the Navy began partnering with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to add sensors, software and missiles specifically for shooting down ballistic missiles.

Today the Navy possesses 38 destroyers and cruisers with ballistic-missile-defense enhancements, together sharing around 300 BMD-capable SM-2, SM-3 and SM-6 missiles. The Navy plans to expand, by 2023, its BMD force to 57 ships and around 600 missiles. The missile-defense vessels undertake two missions.

One, they patrol European and Asian waters in order to detect and shoot down potentially nuclear-armed rockets launched by, say, Iran or North Korea. Two, they protect the rest of the U.S. fleet against attack by conventional anti-ship missiles.

To that end, not all BMD ships are the same. According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2018 just a dozen of the 38 BMD ships have the latest, most-advanced “Baseline 9” and “Baseline 10” software, which the Navy claimed can “defeat” short-, medium- and intermediate-range missiles in the terminal phase of their flight.

In 2023, 31 of 57 planned BMD ships should feature the latest software. As of 2015, the Navy said it ultimately would need 40 ships with advanced missile-defense systems. The remaining vessels could remain at a lower level of sophistication for less-demanding missions.

“The advanced capability ships are primarily used to defend Navy assets in a high-end fight at sea against a near-peer competitor with advanced capabilities,” Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, then a depute chief of naval operations, told Congress in 2015. “BMD ships that I spoke of earlier that we have in the low 30s right now and continue to build more, are primarily for [regional commanders’] requests to defend other assets such as defended asset lists in various parts of the world.”

“So they are perfectly capable of handling advanced threats, but just in that one BMD capability,” Fanta said of the lower-capability vessels. “What we don’t want to do is mix the peacetime presence requirement of those—I won’t call them lesser capable, but baseline capability ballistic missile ships with the advanced ones. I need to beat a high-end competitor at sea in the middle of a fight in the middle of the ocean.”

Three years after Fanta’s testimony, the Chinese have a new, semi-ballistic anti-ship missile and the demand for the Navy’s best missile-defense ships clearly has increased. It’s not for no reason that the Navy is chafing at the Pentagon’s requirement that the sea service protect against rogue nuke launches.

“Right now, as we speak, I have six multi-mission, very sophisticated, dynamic cruisers and destroyers ― six of them are on ballistic-missile-defense duty at sea,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said in June 2018.

Richardson said he’d prefer the Defense Department build more shore-based missile-defenses, like it operates in Alaska, California, Poland and Romania, in order to free up BMD vessels. The more anti-ship missiles the Chinese deploy, the more missile-defense ships the Navy needs.

China's Reported Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Test In The South China Sea Is A Big Deal

The test fits within a larger trend of increasingly provocative Chinese efforts to assert their authority in the disputed region.

July 2, 2019

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China has reportedly carried out at least one anti-ship ballistic missile test in the hotly contested South China Sea as part of a larger exercise. If true, it would be the first time the Chinese military has carried out this kind of activity in this region that we know of and it would represent a significant escalation in that country's already aggressive efforts to assert its claims over this highly strategic portion of the Pacific Ocean.

NBC News was first to report the development, citing two unnamed U.S. officials, on July 1, 2019. NBC's sources did not say what type of missile or missiles were involved or what type of targets they struck at the end of their flight. Neither the Chinese nor the U.S. government have officially confirmed the test, which reportedly occurred over the weekend. However, China did issue Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) for two specific areas in the South China Sea, warnings often associated with missile launches and military exercises. These NOTAMs were in effect between June 30 and July 1, 2019.

One of the NOTAMs covered a wide area stretching from the Chinese island of Hainan to contested Paracel Island chain, including China's outpost on Woody Island, while the other was a box was much further to the south, but north of the disputed Spratly Islands. Their respective positions suggested that Chinese forces had launched a missile from the mainland, with the first exclusion zone being in place in case the missile failed during its boost phase and fell into the ocean, and it then landed downrange in the Pacific Ocean.

China's People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) has at least two ballistic missiles that reportedly have warheads with sufficient maneuverability to engage large, relatively slow-moving ships, such as aircraft carriers. These are the DF-21D medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and the DF-26 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM).

And @HenriKenhmann has the NOTAM exclusion zone mapped out for convenience; this could be a lofted CSS-5 Mod 5 (DF-21D). https://t.co/CAVLFC3WSn
— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) July 2, 2019

In April 2018, there were reports, based on commercial satellite imagery, that suggested there was a previously unknown PLARF base on Hainan island, which would also fit with NBC's report and the publicly available NOTAMs. Either DF-21Ds or DF-26s would have sufficient range to reach the Spratlys from Hainan. China is also in the process of developing shorter range anti-ship ballistic missiles, but these systems would lack the range necessary to hit targets in the South China Sea from the Chinese mainland.

#China #PLARF #DF31AG #MIRV likey tobe deployed #Danzhou,#Hainan
Huge highbay garage,6garages,7C-shaped qtrs,3admin&support infra for 2brigades/24TELs
DES igloo=N option
Launch pts NW&SE
Adv
Range boost&hy payload due to low lat
Evade detection in boost phhttps://t.co/1CxVXAerIT pic.twitter.com/8UF56SOd8Z
— 卫纳夜格@Raj (@rajfortyseven) April 23, 2018

If China has fired DF-21Ds or DF-26s into the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands it would be the first known instance of the PLARF using either missile against a maritime target. The Chinese have previously fired ballistic missiles at broadly carrier-shaped fixed targets in the Gobi Desert.

It is possible that this test was more general and was simply intended to demonstrate a basic ability to fire a missile from the Chinese mainland at a particular spot in the South China Sea. This could still provide important data for future test launches against more representative targets.


https://i.imgur.com/dzbugnn.jpg
An aircraft carrier-sized target in the Gobi desert with multiple craters from the impact of large missiles.

This would also represent a logical progression from a missile exercise in January 2019, in which PLARF DF-26 units mobilized on short notice in the Gobi Desert and Tibetan Plateau regions, explicitly in response to the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS McCampbell sailing through the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. This was clearly meant to show China's ability to threaten hostile ships using ballistic missiles from sites safely within its interior. The PLARF did not actually fire any ballistic missiles in that instance, though.

The video below from China's state-run CCTV shows clips from the DF-26 exercise January 2019.



This new anti-ship ballistic missile test could have been a similar response to the U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force conducting combined operations in the South China Sea earlier in June 2019. This notably involved both the American Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, and her associated strike group, as well as the Japanese "helicopter destroyer" JS Izumo.

In 2018, Japanese officials had finally admitted that they had designed the Izumo-class from the outset as aircraft carriers capable of supporting short takeoff and vertical landing-capable jets. Japan is now looking to fully convert the ships to accommodate F-35B Joint Strike Fighters. China has been a vocal critic of Japan's efforts to increase its military capabilities and even potentially amend its pacifist constitution to allow the Japan Self-Defense Force to conduct more expansive military activities.

https://i.imgur.com/S2tI7mK.jpg
The USS Ronald Reagan, in the background, sails alongside the JS Izumo in the South China Sea in June 2019.

In March 2019, the U.S. Navy's amphibious assault ship USS Wasp had also arrived in the Philippines to take part in a major exercise carrying an unusually heavy load of F-35Bs. Wasp subsequently appeared off Scarborough Shoal, situated to the northeast of the Spratlys. China and the Philippines both claim ownership of the shoal and the waters around it, which has led to serious altercations in the past.

Scarborough Shoal also forms one point of a "strategic triangle" China has been working to secure within the South China Sea in order to better assert its territorial claims. The other two points are Woody Island to the north and the Spratlys further south. Since 2014, the Chinese have been steadily expanding and improving a large constellation of islands and man-made outposts throughout the South China Sea.

At the same time, China has also been increasingly deploying surface-to-air and shore-based anti-ship missiles, among other military hardware, to these outposts, as part of a broader anti-access and area denial strategy.

https://i.imgur.com/Hh7Wrua.jpg
A map showing the China's potential "strategic triangle" in the South China Sea, with Woody Island in the Paracel Islands to the northwest, Scarborough Shoal to the southeast of that, and the Spratly Islands to the south.

The ability to employ anti-ship ballistic missiles against targets in the South China Sea from the Chinese mainland only adds to these defensive layers. Tucked further inside China's own territory, these weapons could be less vulnerable to pre-emptive or counter-strikes from any opponent during a crisis, too.

Adding anti-ship ballistic missiles to China's existing anti-ship cruise missiles defenses in the region would also make the full threat picture more disparate, making it more challenging for opponents to fully defend themselves. Spotting and detecting ballistic missiles, let alone trying to intercept them, is a very different affair from detecting and engaging low-flying air-breathing cruise missiles, a reality the U.S. military made abundantly clear in its most recent Missile Defense Review.

Of course, it is important to note that there is still no indication that China has demonstrated the ability to hit a target representative of even a large moving ship, such as an aircraft carrier, with a ballistic missile, let alone do it reliably. It is similarly unclear whether the People's Liberation Army has the sensor and communications networks to spot ships and then feed useful targeting information to PLARF units hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

But the reported recent missile test in June 2019, as well as the DF-26 exercise earlier in the year, certainly show that the People's Liberation Army is still interested in working to develop this capability, or at least making it appear this way. There have also been reports that the Chinese may be looking to develop air-launched anti-ship ballistic missiles for even greater flexibility. If nothing else, Beijing definitely has no interest in ceding any of its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

https://i.imgur.com/BW2CCMA.jpg
A map of Chinese man-made outposts in the disputed Spratly Islands.

In addition, the Chinese military's deployment of new capabilities in and around the region has coincided with increasingly aggressive maritime patrols to force civilian and military vessels away from the areas that China claims. In September 2018, the People's Liberation Army Navy's Type 052C Luyang II-class destroyer Lanzhou almost collided with the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Decatur near Gaven Reefs in the Spratly Islands.

The United States and China separately remain locked in what has been a particularly bitter trade war and the two countries have also seen increasing tensions over the status of Taiwan in recent months. Following a meeting on the sidelines of the recent G-20 summit in Japan, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to hold off on a new round of tariffs and restart negotiations to end the trade dispute. Trump has also moved to ease sanctions against Chinese telecommunications and consumer electronics giant Huawei, which has been a particularly tense trade issue for the two countries.

But if it is true that the PLARF has started test firing ballistic missiles into the South China Sea, it would seem that however tensions may or may not be easing on the economic front, Beijing still sees no reason to back down with regards to expansive territorial claims in the region.

China showcases new DF-100 hypersonic cruise missile at national day military parade

By
News Desk -
2019-10-01

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China’s People’s Liberation Army showcased 580 units of military equipment and 160 aircraft during the parade, which passed through Tiananmen Square in Beijing and included 15,000 marching soldiers.

The hypersonic DF-100 was shown alongside the CJ-100 and DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The DF-41 is reportedly capable of reaching the United States in 30 minutes and has a range of up to 9,320 miles, the longest in the world.

Another first df-100,hypersonic. pic.twitter.com/6d0Mkptjf2
— Sweaty Bear (@sweatyinbkk) October 1, 2019

​The parade was a demonstration of China’s growing military might. In 2018, China increased its military budget by 5 percent to $250 billion and ranked second in the world in defense spending.

Source: Sputnik