Venezuela will have Latin America’s largest armed forces in terms of firepower by 2013, if the country’s oil revenues remain high in coming years.
President Hugo Chavez has purchased and placed firm orders for close to $6 billion in Russian weapons since 2005, but he is also shopping for weapons in China, Belarus, Spain, France and [...]

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Uncle Sam is down on his knees, and some observers already are administering the last rites. But are they too quick to judge?
Eavesdrop on the two scenes for a moment.
“If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down,” he said of the US economy, marshalling the inimitable eloquence of the President who has given [...]

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China’s submarine fleet is now one of the world’s largest with nearly 85 vessels. More than that, old and unreliable boats mostly acquired from the old Soviet Union are being rapidly replaced by modern submarines armed with highly sophisticated anti-ship missiles and radar-dodging cruise missiles able to attack land targets.
Beijing is even building at least [...]

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Military planners in India are eyeing a crucial junction of the world which serves as the conduit for 80 per cent of China’s imported oil.
If these tensions were ever to boil over into war, India would probably exploit a crucial advantage. Its navy, which eventually plans to deploy three aircraft carriers and two nuclear-powered attack [...]

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China’s growing military ambition, matched only by its growing military spending, is fuelling a rapid Asian arms race.
Beijing deploys the world’s biggest army, its defence spending is rising faster than any other power and, to cap it all, its forces will this month carry out their first spacewalk.
With India, Japan and Russia also investing heavily [...]

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THE SCOTTISH historian Niall Ferguson has warned that the strategic alliance between China and Russia is more of a threat to the West than the credit crunch.
Ferguson, a best-selling author, broadcaster and professor of history at Harvard University, said that the development of the new Russia-China powerblock was set to put the two economic heavyweights [...]

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The hysteria over the expected arms deal between Russia and Syria should be directed elsewhere. Israel may indeed find it harder to strike Syria every time it feels like “sending a message” to Damascus. What should worry Jerusalem more, however, is the fact that it, and Syria, are now at the center of the great [...]

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With all the world’s attention focused on the Beijing Olympics and to a lesser extent, the “truce” in Georgia, we should not underestimate the serious implications for U.S. strategic objectives posed by the Chinese military modernization programs, (Russia’s announced modernization programs is another element).
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By 2010, the PLA Navy could have about 60 very modern to [...]

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To some, China’s muscular domination of the Olympic medal table is a powerful allegory of the shifting balance of global power. A far better and more literal testimony to the collapse of the West may be seen in the distinctly weak-kneed response to Russian aggression in Georgia by what is still amusingly called the transatlantic [...]

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AFTER decades of dispute, China and Russia have at last reached agreement on where the entire length of their common border lies. On July 21st the two countries signed an accord on the last small stretch that had yet to be formally settled, putting an end to a quarrel that once came close to war. [...]

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Apparently, it never dawned on the writer of this article that perhaps China is positioning itself to survive a nuclear war because it may need to start one.
It’s expending a lot of resources to build bunkers under many of its major cities too. Why? This is pretty much a waste of money unless you plan [...]

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China and Russia are challenging the US for dominance in Latin America by pursuing trade and military deals
During a visit to Beijing in November, Correa said China could turn the Manta base into a transit port from which to exploit the riches of the Amazon. China, which is engaged in a headlong rush for timber, [...]

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“China and Russia represent the return of economically successful authoritarian capitalist powers, which have been absent since the defeat of Japan and Germany in 1945,” writes Azar Gat, a national security specialist at Tel Aviv University, in Foreign Affairs magazine.
Ironically, at precisely the moment when America’s military power appears to be at its apex, the [...]

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Poor nations derailed the last WTO deal. Now economic turmoil means the rich countries could kill it off for the foreseeable future
With America reeling from the worst financial crisis for half a century, poor consumers struggling to afford food, and China’s appetite for raw materials forcing up the cost of oil, now may not seem [...]

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In return for allowing the Chinese to cart away more than half a billion pounds’ worth of minerals a year, Mr Mugabe not only makes a vast personal fortune for himself and his henchmen, but is given all the arms he needs to keep his criminal regime in power, including guns, jet fighters and military [...]

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Due to the rapid expansion of its submarine fleet, China’s East Sea Fleet now has a shortage of submarine docks. At the base of the No. 42 Submarine Flotilla in Xiangshan, eight dock bridges have been built. Four of them are used to anchor Kilo 636s, and each can accommodate two Kilos.
Type 033 diesel submarines [...]

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Taiwan had the opportunity to buy arms for several years, but chose not to do so because of internal conflict. A little more than half the island preferred to spend money on social programs instead of expensive military equipment.
From the article:
US says there is no pressing and compelling need at this moment for arms sales [...]

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How would we like it if Russia placed interceptor missiles in Cuba or Venezuela? That question is disingenuous. Both Russia and China have been quietly helping Iran with its missile and nuclear programs. And now they’re mad that we actually want to protect ourself from a rogue state that they’ve been helping for years. That’s [...]

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More strategic unhelpfulness from Russia and China.
From the article:
Russia and China vetoed proposed sanctions on Zimbabwe on Friday, rejecting U.S. efforts to step up punitive measures after the African nation’s disputed presidential election.
Western powers mustered nine votes, the minimum needed to gain approval in the 15-nation council, in a show of hands. But the failed [...]

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The cases have intensified the evaluation in intelligence and law enforcement circles about the breadth of the threat from Beijing. Many have been similar to the one involving Mr. Bergersen, in that prosecutors describe them as carefully planned intelligence operations run by the Chinese government intended to steal national security secrets. Other cases, however, are [...]

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It may be a sporting event but Beijing is on war footing with an estimated 100,000 soldiers, police and anti-terrorist commandos mobilized to guarantee the safety of next month’s Summer Olympics. The People’s Liberation Army has also deployed a battery of surface-to-air Hongqi missiles to guard against attacks from the sky. Despite the preparations, however, [...]

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