Day: July 12, 2022

China has started building what it calls “the world’s most far-reaching radar” in the country’s southwest – a facility that could also have a military purpose, an analyst warned.

Chinese broadcaster CGTN said the new high-definition deep-space active observation facility code-named “China Fuyan,” or “Facetted Eye” for its resemblance to an insect’s eye, is being built in Chongqing Municipality.

The radar system would help “better safeguard Earth” by boosting “the country’s defense capabilities against near-Earth asteroids as well as its sensing capability for the Earth-Moon system,” the state-run broadcaster said.

The Fuyan will have distributed radars with over 20 large antennas, capable of carrying out high-definition observation of asteroids within 150 million kilometers of Earth, according to CGTN.

“If the radar is designed to observe asteroids, it would generally possess the basic capabilities for space surveillance, meaning, the ability to distinguish objects detected in space, and hence track them,” said Collin Koh, Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“Where it comes to space, the lines between civilian and military applications can be blurred,” Koh said, adding that, given China’s predilection these days to go with civil-military fusion, “it’ll be of no surprise that the radar possesses both intended civilian and military applications.”

Civil-military fusion

The project is led by a team from the Beijing Institute of Technology (BTI), in cooperation with China’s National Astronomical Observatories under the China Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University and Peking University.

A China’s Defense Universities Tracker released by the International Cyber Policy Center at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2019 listed the BTI as “one of the ‘Seven Sons of National Defence’,” and “a leading centre of military research and one of only fourteen institutions accredited to award doctorates in weapons science.”

It is categorized as “very high risk” and “top secret,” with 34 designated defense research areas including missile technology, radar and weapon systems.

Both Tsinghua University and Peking University are also listed in the Tracker as “very high risk” and “high risk”, respectively. 

Long Teng, President of the Beijing Institute of Technology, was quoted by Chinese media as saying the Fuyan program will have three phases of construction and by the end of Phase 3 China will have “the world’s first deep-space radar with the capability to carry out 3D imaging and dynamic monitoring as well as active observation of celestial bodies throughout the inner solar system.”

The first two radars are expected to become operational by September this year in Chongqing.

Asian defense analyst Collin Koh said the project will add new weight to China-U.S. rivalry in space.

“When we consider the current context, while there’s no overt clarion call for China to embark on a space militarization race with the West, especially the U.S., since it has a publicly-professed line of not engaging in one, it is nonetheless very much into the game,” he said.

“And all the more so, given the broader military rivalry with the U.S., which has extended into cyber and space domains.”

The U.S. established a Space Force in 2019, creating the first new branch of the armed services in 73 years. It resulted from what the Force said was “a widespread recognition that Space was a national security imperative.”

China has been actively engaged in radar development projects. The commercial satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies released a satellite photo in February, believed to be of a new long-range, early-warning radar that can be used to detect ballistic missiles from thousands of miles away.

The Large Phased Array Radar (LPAR) in Yiyuan County, Shandong Province, can cover Taiwan and all of Japan, according to U.S.-based Defense News.

The paper said China also has other radar facilities enabling early warning coverage of the Korean Peninsula and India.

The Chinese foreign minister urged ASEAN countries Monday against becoming pawns in rivalries between big powers, a day after his U.S. counterpart visited Bangkok as part of the Biden administration’s intense diplomacy to counter Beijing’s engagement in Southeast Asia.

In a speech in Jakarta, Wang Yi appeared to position Beijing as being on the side of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a stance that critics have questioned over frequent Chinese incursions into Asian claimant states’ waters in the disputed South China Sea.

“We should insulate this region from geopolitical calculations and the trap of the law of the jungle, from being used as chess pieces in major power rivalry, and from coercion by hegemony and bullying,” Wang said during his policy speech at the ASEAN Secretariat. 

“The future of our region should be in our own hands.”

Wang called on the region to reject attempts to divide it into “confrontational and exclusive groups,” an apparent reference to U.S.-led security initiatives such as the Quad and AUKUS.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, comprises the United States, Japan, Australia and India. AUKUS is a security pact under which the United States and Britain will help Canberra build nuclear-powered submarines.

“We should uphold true regional cooperation that unites countries within the region and remain open to countries outside, and reject the kind of fake regional cooperation that keeps a certain country out and targets certain side,” Wang said.

But, critics say, alleged incursions by Chinese vessels in the exclusive economic zones of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia in the South China Sea have threatened stability in Southeast Asia.

China has never accepted a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that found Beijing’s expansive “historical claims” in the South China Sea to have no legal basis.

And for the Biden administration, Southeast Asia is a top priority, it has stressed time and again. It sees the area as crucial, and analysts said Washington scored a win in its efforts to counter Beijing’s influence by getting most members of the ASEAN bloc to join the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity deal in May.

Now, Wang is on a tour of the region to promote China’s Global Development Initiative, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

On Monday he described the former as a solution to “the global peace deficit and security dilemma.” BRI is an estimated $1 trillion-plus infrastructure initiative to build a network of railways, ports and bridges across 70 countries, which critics say has led many countries into a debt trap, a charge Beijing has hotly denied. 

Wang’s visit to Jakarta followed the G7 summit in Germany late last month, where leaders announced that their governments together would raise $600 billion funds over five years to finance infrastructure in developing nations to counter the BRI.

On Saturday, Blinken said that Washington was not asking others to choose between the United States and China, “but giving them a choice, when it comes to things like investment in infrastructure and development systems.”

“What we want to make sure is that we’re engaged in a race to the top, that we do things to the highest standards, not a race to the bottom where we do things to the lowest standards.”

While in Thailand, Blinken and his Thai counterpart, Don Pramudwinai, signed the U.S.-Thailand Communiqué on Strategic Alliance and Partnership on Sunday.

“Our countries share the same goals – the free, open, interconnected, prosperous, resilient and secure Indo-Pacific. In recent years, we worked together even more closely toward that vision,” Blinken said.

According to Agus Haryanto, an analyst at Jenderal Soedirman University in Purwokerto, China is concerned about U.S. reengagement with Southeast Asia after being perceived as lacking interest in the region during the years of the Trump administration (2017-2021).

“The United States under President Biden is paying attention again to Southeast Asia, including a focus on democracy issues in Myanmar and strengthening cooperation with Thailand,” Agus told BenarNews.  

China ‘supported Russia in the UN’

On Sunday, Blinken urged ASEAN members and China to push Myanmar’s junta to end violence against its people and move back toward democracy.

More than 2,065 civilians have been killed in Myanmar since the military overthrew the democratic government in February 2021, according to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Blinken also accused China of supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, despite Beijing’s professed neutrality.

“We are concerned about the PRC’s alignment with Russia,” Blinken told reporters after a meeting with Wang in Bali, where they had attended the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting.

“I don’t think that China is in fact engaging in a way that suggests neutrality. It’s supported Russia in the U.N. It continues to do so. It’s amplified Russian propaganda,” he said.

Meanwhile on Monday, Wang met with Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and praised Jakarta for its initiative to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said.

“The PRC once again appreciates Indonesia’s various efforts to seek a peaceful settlement to ongoing situation in Ukraine, including specifically mentioning the President’s visits to Kyiv and Moscow,” Retno said in a statement released by Jokowi’s office.

Retno said Wang and Jokowi discussed “priority projects,” including the China-backed Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, the country’s first, and part of the BRI projects.

In a statement following a meeting between with Indonesia’s most senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan on Saturday, Wang said Beijing and Jakarta agreed on building a community “with a shared future” and forging “a new pattern of bilateral cooperation” covering the political, economic, cultural and maritime sectors. 

“Indonesia supports and stands ready to actively participate in the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, both put forward by President Xi Jinping,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“China is ready to work with Indonesia to continue taking the lead in solidarity and cooperation among regional and developing countries, and forge an exemplary model of mutual benefit, win-win results and common development, as well as a vanguard of South-South cooperation, so as to make greater contributions to maintaining regional stability and promoting world peace,” it said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Myanmar’s junta is unlikely to sign off on an all-inclusive dialogue to resolve the country’s political crisis unless additional pressure is applied, observers said Monday, following calls by both the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China to allow all stakeholders to the negotiating table.

But sources in Myanmar told RFA Burmese that even if all sides of the political spectrum were represented at talks, compromise would be difficult because of how far apart their views are on how the country should be governed.

“It could happen if more international and domestic pressure mounted,” political analyst Than Soe Naing said of the likelihood of all-inclusive talks.

“Under the present circumstances, when [the junta has] some control over the country, they do not seem interested.”

Than Soe Naing noted that the junta is adamant about maintaining Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution, which grants the military 25 percent of parliamentary seats, giving it an effective veto on constitutional reform. The country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group say they will only negotiate with the junta if it completely withdraws from politics.

“They would have to reconcile that and I don’t think it will be easy. So I think [all-inclusive talks are] unlikely at the moment,” he said.

Additionally, Than Soe Naing said, there is nobody who can represent the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) at negotiations with the junta because all of the party’s top officials were arrested in the aftermath of the military’s Feb. 1, 2021 coup.

The military claims voter fraud led to a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD in the country’s November 2020 election. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule, killing 2,076 people and arresting 14,544 over the last 17 months, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing agreed to pursue talks with all of Myanmar’s stakeholders following an emergency ASEAN meeting on the situation in the country in April 2021, but has yet to do so. Calls for such a dialogue were reiterated by ASEAN Special Envoy for Myanmar Prak Sokhonn during his June 29-July 2 trip to Myanmar and again, days later, by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting with his junta counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thailand along with ASEAN members and China to push the junta to end violence against its people and follow through on its pledge at last year’s ASEAN meeting, following a meeting in Bangkok with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha.

‘Up to the people’

Nai Than Shwe, a spokesman for the Mon Unity Party (MUP) who met with Sokhonn during his visit, told RFA on Monday that the junta must have a desire for dialogue if all-inclusive talks are to take place.

“If the junta takes the initiative, anything is possible. But it’s up to the junta whether or not a dialogue will happen,” he said.

An abbot of the Mandalay Sangha Union of Buddhist monks told RFA that ASEAN and China are advocating for all-inclusive talks in the hopes of a return to the status quo in Myanmar.

“The dialogue that both ASEAN and China are pushing for is, in short, nothing more than a return to quasi-military rule we used to have before the coup,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“However, the kind of negotiations called for by the NLD cannot end there. If they do, the people will not accept it.”

He noted that the military, the NUG, and the PDF have all said they have no interest in negotiations, “so it is up to the people to make it happen.”

A spokesman for the anti-junta People’s Defense Battalion No. 2 in Mon state’s Thaton township, who also declined to be named, echoed the abbot’s suggestion that the people of Myanmar must push for an all-inclusive dialogue.

“Most of our PDF units … do not want discussions or negotiations with them,” he said.

“Given our military momentum and the participation of the people, as well as growing international pressure, we have no reason to discuss anything with them at this time. They are actually looking for a way out … But if the people want us to do it, we will do it.”

Junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun had earlier told RFA that the junta would not hold talks with those facing trial or with the NUG and PDF, who it has labeled “terrorists.” However, following the visits of the ASEAN and Chinese envoys, he told the BBC in an interview that “nothing is politically impossible.”

The NUG is adamant that it will not hold talks with the junta. Attempts by RFA to contact Kyaw Zaw, a spokesman for the office of NUG President Duwa Lashi La, for comment on the shadow government’s latest position went unanswered Monday.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.