Chang wanquan biography of donald
•
The hyper-imperialism of Donald J Trump
IT DID not take long. Within weeks, US President Donald J Trump authorised the firing of missiles at some caves in Somalia, where — he claimed — a military leader of Isis (or the Islamic State) was hiding. No US president in the past quarter-century has started his term without an attack on “terrorists.”
Three days after he became president, on January 23 , Barack Obama sent an aircraft to fire a missile at Ziraki by in North Waziristan (Pakistan). It “missed” the Taliban mål and instead killed at least nine civilians and injured many others (including year-old Faheem Qureshi). There was never an acknowledgement for this “mistake.” Nor has there been any real konto of the civilian destruction in the Momand Valley in Nangarhar province (Afghanistan), where Trump ordered the dropping of a 21,lb or 9,kg “mother of all bombs” in onto a network of caves.
We likely will not hear from Somalia’s civilians in a long time. This has become a
•
China’s next defense minister will be confirmed and announced by the country’s national legislature when it next meets in March. General Chang Wanquan, who has served in this role since March , will most likely be replaced by General Wei Fenghe, a former commander of China’s missile forces.
This would be the first time that a non-army general is appointed to the role. While he will bring to the role fresh perspectives, China’s underlying military strategy is unlikely to change.
In the Chinese system, the defense minister is the public face of the military and its chief diplomat. Key military decisions are made by the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s supreme military body that oversees the massive People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The Ministry of National Defense is not responsible for military operations or planning, but manages the PLA’s relationships with foreign militaries, state institutions and the public. While it is nominally a state institution, it is also a milit
•
China suggests joint South China Sea drills with Asean
The suggestion for joint drills was made on Friday at a meeting with defence ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional alliance.
The drills would be one way of achieving the aim of "jointly solving disputes and controlling risks", China's defence ministry said in a statement.
The offer "indicates potential for the conflict to de-escalate" and if Asean states agreed, the drills would be "a confidence-building measure that can ease tensions", military studies research fellow Daniel Wei Boon Chua, of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told the BBC.
William Choong, senior fellow at think-tank II-SS, called it "a conciliatory effort at blunting the bad press" and "to tamp down the temperature when you have US Navy ships possibly sailing in."
But he felt that the drills would be "unlikely" to take off, &qu