{"id":195177,"date":"2019-09-22T09:01:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T09:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=195177"},"modified":"2019-09-24T07:02:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T07:02:12","slug":"chinas-national-day-parade-to-showcase-advances-in-nuclear-deterrence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=195177","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s National Day parade to showcase advances in nuclear deterrence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnie Chan \u2013 South China Morning Post Sept 22, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

China\u2019s land-based DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile will be among the military hardware on show on October 1. Photo shows a covered DF-41 launcher taking part in a nightime rehearsal for the parade. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

China plans to show off its most advanced active weapon systems at the upcoming National Day parade, which will be the biggest of the 14 such events it has held over the past seven decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

The parade, to be held on October 1 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People\u2019s Republic, will highlight the military modernisation \u2013 particularly in nuclear deterrence \u2013 that has taken place since President Xi Jinping<\/strong><\/span><\/a> came to power in late 2012, according to military experts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) offered a glimpse of those weapons during rehearsals for the parade in downtown Beijing from September 14.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the celebrations, Xi, who also chairs the Central Military Commission, will inspect 48 squads on the ground and more than a dozen airborne squadrons, according to a military insider involved in support services for the parade.<\/span><\/p>\n

The squadrons will include the air force\u2019s first stealth fighter, the J-20; the main active warplanes such as the J-10 and J-11B; and armed helicopters like the Z-20. However, the J-8 fighter jet would not appear this year, the source said, confirming that the first interceptor built in China has been formally retired.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe ground march will be led by several hero forces from the five theatre commands, which is different from previous squads selected from the ground forces, air force and navy,\u201d said the insider, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe main goal of this year\u2019s parade is to promote the military modernisation of the PLA under President Xi\u2019s leadership over the past seven years, with the military overhaul being one of the key achievements.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thirty-three of the 48 squads would be \u201cweapon squads\u201d, while the 13 others would be made up of infantry troops from the five theatre commands, the source said.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the PLA\u2019s sweeping military reforms, the army\u2019s previous seven military commands were reshaped into five theatre commands, while the four former general headquarters were dissolved and replaced by 15 small functional departments.<\/span><\/p>\n

In September 2015, Xi announced the PLA would shed 300,000 troops, cutting its size to 2 million, a move aimed at turning the PLA into a more nimble and combat-ready fighting force on a par with international standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Xi also split the former Second Artillery Corps into the Rocket Force and the Strategic Support Force, with the latter backing up the military\u2019s electronic warfare units in cyberspace and outer space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the 33 weapon squads, the highlights are expected to be the PLA\u2019s strategic nuclear missiles such as the Rocket Force\u2019s land-based DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, the DF-17 hypersonic missile and the sea-launched JL-2, or Big Wave-2.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam Ni, a researcher at Macquarie University in Australia, said that showing off different types of missiles on land and sea indicated that the PLA was improving its nuclear deterrence capabilities by perfecting a three-pronged military force structure, or the so-called nuclear triad.<\/span><\/p>\n

The DF-41 is capable of carrying multiple warheads and many decoys, making it harder to detect than silo-based systems and better able to survive a first strike.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ni said the DF-41 was China\u2019s next-generation cutting-edge weapon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually an advanced ICBM and has a range to hit practically anywhere in the world, including the continental United States,\u201d Ni said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe DF-41 is the ultimate symbol of the destructive potential of Chinese armed forces, just as nuclear weapons are similar symbols of the US and Russia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The JL-2 \u2013 which has a shorter range of 7,000km (4,350 miles) and can be launched by the PLA Navy\u2019s Type 094 submarines \u2013 is unable to hit anywhere on the American continent when launched from submarines in the South China Sea and coastal areas of China.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, China is developing the JL-3, which has a range of about 9,000km; the upgraded version of the JL-2, with a flight test conducted in June, though it is still less than the 12,000km range of the American Trident II.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChina is stepping up its military modernisation, which includes a number of aspects; the land-based aspect is introducing more mobile and survivable missile systems,\u201d Ni said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe game change will happen when China is able to hit the whole US continent with its missile submarines in Chinese coastal waters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In military terms, survivable refers to the ability to remain mission capable after a single engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The DF-17 is a land-to-land short-range strategic missile capable of delivering both nuclear and conventional payloads. The US intelligence community has estimated that it will reach initial operational capability by 2020. But if the missile is displayed in the parade, that means it is active already.<\/span><\/p>\n

China conducted two tests of the DF-17 in November 2017, with the first launched from the Jiuquan Space Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping said the nuclear weapons that would go on show in the parade would all be strategic missiles designed to improve China\u2019s deterrent capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The show comes after the PLA delivered a national defence white paper in July stressing its goal to \u201cmaintain national strategic security by deterring other countries from using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against China\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike in the past, this year\u2019s report stated that the US and China were now competing superpowers, and that the PLA\u2019s growing forces were developing to the point that they could challenge the US.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zhou Chenming, a Beijing-based military observer, said it was also necessary for the PLA to \u201cshow some of its muscle\u201d amid the ongoing trade dispute between Beijing and Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo prevent misunderstanding, most of the weapons are just strategic equipment, not tactical arms, because Beijing still doesn\u2019t want to irritate Washington,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 280,000 people were involved in the rehearsals for the parade and related support services, according to Xinhua.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to one insider, China intends to \u201cshow some of its muscle\u201d amid the ongoing trade dispute between Beijing and Washington<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195177"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195184,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195177\/revisions\/195184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}