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America's intelligence community is quietly preparing for a new conflict, one which hasn't made headlines yet. Ahead of Al-Qaeda, more important than the quagmire in Iraq, the Chinese Threat is America's new war. If Taiwan is today the most explosive strategic issue between China and the USA, there are already skirmishes (some public and some secret) such as the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade or the Chinese cyber attack on the German defense ministry. Using testimonies from western and Chinese specialists, this film is the thrilling account of a new form of conflict taking shape: an unrestricted war with countless battlefields, ranging from space to the Internet and from finance to the control of natural resources.
Chinese Program 863
The 863 program is a Chinese State High-Tech Development Plan a program funded and administered by the government of the People's Republic of China intended to stimulate the development of advanced technologies in a wide range of fields for the purpose of rendering China independent of financial obligations for foreign technologies. Among the products known to have resulted from the 863 program are the Loongson computer processor family (originally named Godson) and the Shenzhou spacecraft. Named after its date of establishment (March 1986, 86/3 by the Chinese date format), the 863 Program was proposed in a letter to the Chinese government by engineers Wang Ganchang, Wang Daheng, Yang Jiaxi, and Chen Fangyun and endorsed by Deng Xiaoping. After its implementation during the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the program continued to operate through the two five-year plans that followed, with state financing of around 11 billion RMB and an output of around 2000 patents (national and international).
Under the plan, about US $200 billion was to be spent on information and communication technologies, of which US $150 billion was earmarked for telecommunications. In 1996 the key technological field of Marine Technology was added. The implementation took place during the Seventh Five-Year Plan and an update has been made during the period of the Tenth, which lasted from 2001 to 2005.
In 2001, under the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the program was reevaluated in consultation with foreign experts. The result was a widened focus to strengthen the competitiveness of China in the global economy. The evaluation practice has been included into the program as a project management system. In a 2011 court case, Chinese-born scientist Huang Kexue was found guilty of stealing commercial secrets from US-based corporations and passing at least some of this information to the 863 program. The program initially focused on seven key technological fields Biotechnology, Space, Information technology, Laser technology, Automation, Energy, New materials
Since 1986, two more fields have been brought under the umbrella of the program: Telecommunications (1992), Marine technology (1996)
The Program 973 or also known as National Basic Research Program is a basic research program initiated by the People's Republic of China to achieve technology and strategic edge in various scientific fields and especially the development of the rare earth minerals industry.
The program was initiated in 1997 by the Chinese government to develop basic research, innovations and technologies aligned with national priorities in economic development and social development.The program was managed by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. Natural Science Foundation of China is also involved in coordinating the research with the program.
Over the years the program has dedicated funding to areas such as agriculture, health, information, energy, environment, resources, population and materials.
The central government has in the past funded projects for a term of no more than five years. Recently, the funding model has changed to 2 + 3 years. Two years after the project has been implemented, it will be assessed by a special panel and allocate funding accordingly
China had used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite.
It is the first known satellite intercept test for more than 20 years. Several countries, including Japan, Australia and the US, have expressed concern at the test, amid worries it could trigger a space arms race. Liu Jianchao told reporters that China had notified "other parties and... the American side" of its test. "But China stresses that it has consistently advocated the peaceful development of outer space and it opposes the arming of space and military competition in space," he told a news conference. "China has never, and will never, participate in any formof space arms race." However, Dr Joseph Wu, head of the body responsible for Taiwan's relations with China, viewed it differently. "This is an aggressive act by the Chinese side, I don't think it's just limited to Taiwan only but of course... Taiwan stands out to be the first country that might have to suffer if a future conflict were to erupt between China and some other countries."
China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force if the island ever moved to declare formal independence. As the US, is committed to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons, supports the status quo.
US spy satellites watch over the Taiwan Straits, and coordinating any defence against a possible Chinese invasion would be made much harder if those spy satellites were destroyed.
The
Silent War
Technology
A "high-tech" nation like the U.S. it must be
understood that faulty electronic chips supplied by a foreign nation are a
"Trojan Horse-like" weapon of choice that works. This story
certainly not new. It is about 1,800 or more of bad Chinese electronic
components now known to be in a growing number of our major weapon systems and
the associated supply systems. America's war-planes, ships and communications
(this includes computers) are under attack. As far back as 2005 US
government knew that at least 15% of the items are from China. The
problem also includes contaminated items intended for use by children as
well as general food items tainted with pesticides, carcinogens, bacteria
and banned drugs.
A
US Senate investigation revealed counterfeit electronics are being found in US
defense systems. The parts don’t just come directly from China anymore; they
also are coming from suppliers in Britain and Canada who redirect Chinese
products.
The Senate panel tracked some 1,800 cases of
suspected counterfeit parts through the supply chain. It
found that U.S. defense contractors had purchased many of the critical
components from US companies who in turn obtained them from Chinese firms but
never subjected them to testing before handing them over to the U.S. military
as part of their contract.
Tensions have been rising over China’s Yuan policy ever since
the US President depicted China as “currency manipulator,” during his earlier
days in office. Western countries along
with some emerging economies are of the view that China is
deliberately manipulating Yuan’s value not allowing it to appreciate. They
opine, China is following various means to keep Yuan value low, like buying
dollars and other forex currencies, pegging it to the dollar etc.
Lower
Yuan value is making Chinese products more competitive in the global trade, due
to which China is able to amass trade surplus in hundreds of billions of
dollars, according to the developed economies. China disagrees with the west’s
contention and says that it is not responsible for the problems faced by the
Western countries. China says the developed countries have many problems
created by themselves that require immediate attention. It is not fair for the
west to attack Chinese Yuan Policy without reforming
their financial regulatory laws, due to which the western states are
not in a position to control the “too-big-to-fail” (or “too-important-to-fail”
according to the IMF) financial conglomerates, China says.
However,
many western analysts admit that nobody thought a currency reform would be a
"silver bullet" that would fix all the problems. The US and others
need to take their own steps to save more. The IMF semi-annual “Global
Financial Stability Report” released in first week of October 2010 said that
the western countries are lagging behind implementing financial regulatory
measures, agreed two years back in G20 conference. The US law of financial
reforms has been modified several times as a result of lobbying by the
financial giants.
