China wants to further upgrade its military technologically.
The US is concerned about testing a Chinese hypersonic missile.
New quarrel looms.
Beijing / Munich - China's President Xi Jinping wants to advance the People's Liberation Army * technologically.
At an arms conference in Beijing, according to a report by the official
Xinhua
news agency, he urged
the military's procurement experts to make further breakthroughs in the development of weapons and equipment.
Xi also praised the technical advances made over the past five years.
The country's technological advances were only recently shown live. US Chief of Staff Mark Milley confirmed on Wednesday that the US had
taken note of
the testing of a Chinese
Long March
hypersonic missile
. Milley believes the missile is part of a hypersonic weapon system and described it on
Bloomberg TV
as "worrying."
The tests "came close to a Sputnik moment," said the general.
He was referring to the Sputnik space capsule, which the USSR surprisingly sent into orbit in 1957 in the middle of the Cold War.
The US * was shocked and Moscow took the lead in the superpower race for space.
Milley's reaction suggests that China's hypersonic weapons program is more advanced than US intelligence agencies previously thought.
China's Missile Test: What Are Hypersonic Missiles?
However, it is still unclear whether the rocket launch was really militarily motivated, because Beijing denies it.
Foreign Office spokesman Zhao Lijian said last week that the launch was a "routine test" that is necessary to enable the technology to be used on a regular basis.
This is important in space travel and is customary internationally in order to keep costs down.
Long march
rockets also transport astronauts and cargo into space, most recently to China's *
Tiangong
space station, which is
currently
under construction
.
What are hypersonic missiles?
Hypersonic missiles make it five times the speed of sound - around 5000 kilometers per hour. They fly low and are difficult to track down. The US and Russia currently have the most advanced hypersonic technology. But other countries are also working on it, according to
Bloomberg
, including India, Japan, Australia, France and Germany. North Korea also claims to have tested a hypersonic missile.
China's military may have conducted two hypersonic weapons tests * this summer, including launching a hypersonic missile into orbit that could carry a nuclear payload.
The British
Financial Times
had been the first to report on the tests, citing five unnamed officials.
According to
FT
, the rocket had orbited the globe once in low orbit before missing its intended target by about 15 kilometers.
China had already presented a hypersonic medium-range missile called DF-17 with a shorter range in 2019.
China: Technological progress through high military spending
Even if China's military budget is still far below that of the US, its arsenal is becoming more and more modern due to growing spending. Officially, the military budget of the People's Republic rose by 6.8 percent to around 1.35 trillion yuan in 2021 (the equivalent of 175 billion euros). Experts in the West assume, however, that the annual official budget does not include all defense spending, because some military posts are assigned to other budgets and are actually higher. The respected specialist magazine Janes, for example, estimates the actual expenditure for 2021 to be around 25 percent higher (the equivalent of 225 billion euros).
China has been able to develop high-tech weapons such as sixth generation combat aircraft, laser rifles, intelligent drones, new stealth materials, autonomous combat robots, orbital spacecraft, unmanned submarines, and biotechnology such as powered exoskeletons.
China's J-20 stealth bomber, which went into operation in 2017, is compared to the 5th generation of the US F-22 fighter jet.
China now has two aircraft carriers;
two more are under construction.
The number of nuclear warheads is estimated at 200-300.
At the same time, however, large parts of the armed forces are still considered out of date.
Is an arms race looming in the Far East?
It is not certain that the rise of China will indirectly trigger an arms race in the Far East.
But it always suggests itself.
For example, on Wednesday India tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of nuclear weapons with a range of 5,000 kilometers from an island off its east coast.
The
Times of India
newspaper
described the test as a "strong strategic signal to China" amid a border dispute in the Himalayas that has been going on for 17 months.
Bhupendra Patel, Prime Minister of the State of Gujarat, called the test on Twitter a "proud moment for India".
China's neighbors such as Japan and Korea are also considering greater armament.
Taiwan also wants to strengthen its defense capabilities with the help of new deterrent weapons * out of fear of an attack.
China and USA: More and more conflict issues
Tensions between the USA and China have been increasing steadily since Donald Trump's presidency, because Trump's successor Joe Biden * is continuing the confrontational course. He wants to form an alliance of democracies against autocratic states like China and Russia. His Foreign Minister Antony Blinken this week called on the UN member states to enable Taiwan to play a significant role in the bodies of the world organization *.
The USA is also restricting market access for more and more companies from China.
Just this week, the government withdrew its license from the US subsidiary of the state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom.
China Telecom (Americas) Corp.
must now withdraw from the US market within two months.
China Telecom is also one of those companies that are no longer allowed to raise capital in the USA and therefore had to leave the New York Stock Exchange.
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