• Chinese blockade of Taiwan would likely fail, Pentagon official says
• China vows deeper trade, investment with Russia despite Western rebuke
• Xi says China, US “should and must“ achieve peaceful co-existence
• China and Russia “close“ in views on US and Ukraine as Wang Yi visits Moscow
• FBI chief says China has bigger hacking program than the competition combined
• Republican presidential hopeful Pence says China close to becoming “evil empire“

Chinese blockade of Taiwan would likely fail, Pentagon official says

https://reuters.com/article/usa-china-taiwan-military/chinese-blockade-of-taiwan-would-likely-fail-pentagon-official-says-idUSKBN30P1K0

A Chinese blockade of Taiwan would likely fail and a direct military invasion of the self-ruled island would be extremely difficult for Beijing to carry out successfully, senior Pentagon officials told Congress on Tuesday.

China's military in recent years has stepped up activity around Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. U.S. CIA Director William Burns has said Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed his country's armed forces to be ready to invade by 2027.

However, whether Xi would order taking Taiwan by force, either through military options like a blockade or an invasion is unclear.

Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security Affairs, said a blockade would give Taiwan's allies time to mobilize resources for Taiwan. A blockade's economic impact would be so devastating that it would harden international resolve against Beijing, he said.

"It would likely not succeed, and it would be a huge risk of escalation for the PRC, where it would likely have to consider whether or not it was willing to ultimately start attacking commercial maritime vessels," Ratner told the House Armed Services Committee, using an acronym for the People's Republic of China.

Army Major General Joseph McGee, vice director for strategy, plans and policy of the Pentagon's Joint Staff, said a blockade was also not very likely given the challenges involved.

"I think it is an option but probably not a highly likely option, when you start looking at the military options - much easier to talk about a blockade than actually do a blockade," McGee told lawmakers.

China staged war games around Taiwan in August of last year and again in April, and its forces operate around the island almost daily.

Taiwan's defense ministry said last week in its biennial report that China was bolstering its air power along the coast facing Taiwan with a permanent deployment of new fighters and drones at expanded air bases.

Still, McGee also said China's military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), would be hard pressed to carry out frontal, amphibious invasion of the island. That is not something it could do in a surprise attack either, he said.

"They would have to mass tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of troops on the eastern coast and that would be a clear signal," McGee said.

He added flatly: "There is absolutely nothing easy about a PLA invasion of Taiwan."

"They would also encounter an island that has very few beaches, where you could land craft on mountainous terrain, and a population that we believe that would be willing to fight so there is absolutely nothing easy about a PLA invasion of Taiwan," he said.

China vows deeper trade, investment with Russia despite Western rebuke

https://reuters.com/article/china-russia-trade/china-vows-deeper-trade-investment-with-russia-despite-western-rebuke-idUSKBN30P1GU

China on Tuesday urged increased cross-border connectivity with Russia and deeper mutual trade and investment cooperation, as both allies vowed ever closer economic ties despite disapproval from the West after Russian forces invaded Ukraine last year.

The Russian minister of economic development held "in-depth" discussions on economic cooperation with the Chinese commerce minister in Beijing on Tuesday, coinciding with a trip by China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, to Moscow for strategic talks that led to the confirmation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing next month.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in the Beijing discussions that Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation had continued to deepen and become more "solid" under the "strategic guidance" of the two heads of state, according to a statement from his ministry.

With the war in Ukraine well in its second year and Russia under Western sanctions, Moscow has leaned on its ally Beijing for economic support, feeding on Chinese demand for oil and gas as well as grain.

Beijing has rejected Western criticism of its growing partnership with Moscow in light of Russia's war on Ukraine. It insists the ties do not flout international norms, and China has the prerogative to collaborate with whichever country it chooses.

On Tuesday, Group of Seven ministers reiterated its call, without naming any countries, on third parties to "cease any and all assistance to Russia's war of aggression or face severe costs."

The Russian Far East bordering China as well as North Korea has gained new strategic significance as a zone of cross-border trade and commerce.

Last week, Russia's United Oil- and Gas-Chemical Co. and China's Xuan Yuan Industrial Development agreed to build a transshipment oil complex near a railway bridge linking the Russian town of Nizhneleninskoye to China's Tongjiang as Moscow diversifies its exports of commodities away from Europe, which it now deems politically "unfriendly".

Chinese state media also says there is a growing "necessity" for China and Russia to step up their grain trading amid continued tight global supplies. The construction of a grain corridor linking Russia to Heilongjiang, China's northeastern bread basket, will help bolster China's food security.

Earlier in September, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that Heilongjiang should become a "pivotal" gateway for China's opening up in the north, saying the province ought to play an active role in safeguarding national defence, food, and energy security.

Xi says China, US “should and must“ achieve peaceful co-existence

https://reuters.com/article/usa-china-xi/xi-says-china-us-should-and-must-achieve-peaceful-co-existence-idUSKBN30P095

Chinese President Xi Jinping told two US Flying Tigers veterans who fought for China during World War II that China and the US "should and must" achieve peaceful co-existence, offering further cues for both sides to lower persistent tensions.

In his reply to a letter from former pilot Harry Moyer and pilot gunner Mel McMullen, Xi said the people of China and the United States had shared the same enemy in their fight against Japan and had forged a "profound" friendship, according to Chinese state media on Tuesday.

"Looking to the future, China and the United States, as two major countries, bear more important responsibilities for world peace, stability and development," Xi said.

"They should and must achieve mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation."

His call for stable and peaceful ties followed a series of meetings and talks between US and Chinese officials in recent months aimed at reducing tensions and restoring channels of communication including contact between their militaries.

The American Volunteer Group, known as the Flying Tigers, was a fighter group, comprising former US pilots hired by the Republic of China led by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, to fight against Japan in 1941-42.

The airmen, whose planes were iconic for their shark faces, were widely known in China for their feats of bravery in the face of larger Japanese forces as they took to the skies from rural runways paved by Chinese people by hand.

"Currently, China-US relations face many difficulties and challenges," Chinese Vice President Han Zheng told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.

"The world needs stable and healthy China-US relations," Han said.

China and Russia “close“ in views on US and Ukraine as Wang Yi visits Moscow

https://reuters.com/article/russia-china/china-and-russia-close-in-views-on-us-and-ukraine-as-wang-yi-visits-moscow-idUSKBN30O1OF

Moscow's and Beijing's top diplomats noted "closeness" in their positions on Washington's "anti-Russian and anti-Chinese" stance and agreed any bid to resolve the Ukraine crisis must include Moscow, Russia's foreign ministry said early on Tuesday.

Wang Yi, Chinese leader Xi Jinping's point man for international dealings, is in Moscow for several days of security and foreign policy talks with Russian officials.

He arrived in Moscow directly from hours of talks in Malta with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan that the White House said on Sunday were "candid" and "constructive."

Russia's foreign ministry said in a Telegram statement after the Moscow talks that "the closeness of the positions of the parties regarding U.S. actions in the international arena, including those of an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese nature, was noted."

The ministry added that Wang briefed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about "the content of negotiations" with Sullivan.

The U.S. and its allies have often said they are concerned about an increasing alignment between China and Russia, which firmed after Moscow sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in 2022, in what Washington and Kyiv say was an unprovoked act of aggression.

While not committing to defend each other's country with military support and with President Vladimir Putin leaning on Xi far more than China does on Russia, supplying Chinese demand for oil and gas, the two countries have said they drew closer to counterbalance the perceived U.S. domination of global affairs.

Wang's talks with Lavrov included preparations for Russia's participation in the third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in October, the Russian ministry said, without confirming whether Putin will attend.

"The negotiations took place in the trusting and constructive manner inherent in the Russian-Chinese dialogue," the ministry said.

It added that Lavrov and Wang talked "in detail" about Ukraine, "noting the futility of attempts to resolve the crisis without taking into account the interests and especially without the participation of Russia."

The war in Ukraine has claimed the lives of thousands of people, displaced millions, turned cities into rubble and has no end in sight.

Wang will hold "strategic security" talks later on Tuesday with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, Russia's Interfax reported, before holding trilateral talks with Mongolian officials.

FBI chief says China has bigger hacking program than the competition combined

https://reuters.com/article/usa-china-cyber/fbi-chief-says-china-has-bigger-hacking-program-than-the-competition-combined-idUSKBN30O1JX

Beijing has a cyberespionage program so vast that it is bigger than all of its major competitors combined, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray told a conference on Monday.

U.S. officials have been sounding the alarm about Chinese hackers for years. But even after decades of handwringing over the theft of American secrets, Wray's comments were unusually stark.

"China already has a bigger hacking program than every other major nation combined," Wray said. "If each one of the FBI's cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused on China exclusively, Chinese hackers would still outnumber our cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1."

Beijing's embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment, but China has repeatedly denied using hackers to spy on the United States. Last month the embassy said that American officials and media frequently "hyped up" allegations of China-linked espionage.

*Wray was speaking at mWISE, a Washington conference hosted by Mandiant, the cybersecurity company bought in 2022 by Alphabet's Google Inc. (GOOGL.O)

*His comments follow a spate of high-profile hacks blamed on China, including the recent theft of hundreds of thousands of emails from senior U.S. government officials.

*Mandiant Chief Executive Kevin Mandia told Reuters at the conference that Chinese hackers were increasingly among the best spies out there. "The top innovator on offense is China," he said.

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Republican presidential hopeful Pence says China close to becoming “evil empire“

https://reuters.com/article/usa-election-pence-china/republican-presidential-hopeful-pence-says-china-close-to-becoming-evil-empire-idUSKBN30O1MR

Former Vice President Mike Pence said China is close to becoming an "evil empire" on Monday as he and fellow Republicans vying for their party's presidential nomination ramp up rhetoric against what they say is America's number one foreign adversary.

"China is the greatest strategic and economic threat facing the United States in the 21st Century," Pence said in a speech at the conservative Hudson Institute in Washington.

"China may not yet be an evil empire – but it is working hard to become one," Pence said.

Pence called for increased arms sales to Taiwan, breaking off U.S. economic ties with essential Chinese industries, restricting Chinese nationals working in U.S. technological companies to reduce intellectual property theft, and a nationwide ban on Chinese-owned TikTok social media.

The Republicans campaigning to become the party's pick for the November 2024 election are almost in unanimous agreement: China is the leading foreign foe of the U.S.

In this Republican race, the attacks are more frequent and the proposals bolder, political operatives said, thanks to a shift in U.S. public opinion.

Some 50% of Americans identify China as the greatest threat to the United States, according to a Pew Research poll released in late July. Russia is next, according to 17% of respondents.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech investor in the race, is due to deliver a speech on Thursday in which he will lay out his plan for securing economic independence from China.

Fellow rival and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is also due to give a foreign policy speech soon, his aides said. In it, he is expected to lay out an aggressive stance towards China. DeSantis has already called for ending normal trade relations with China. In Florida, he has banned TikTok from government and school-issued devices.

In his speech, Pence amplified a split within the Republican candidates over the war in Ukraine, and how China will view the continued U.S. response to Russia's invasion of its neighbor.

Pence said it was vital the U.S. gives all military support necessary to Ukraine so it can defeat Russian forces.

Without naming them, Pence decried what he called the "isolationism" of some 2024 rivals - such as Ramaswamy, DeSantis and former President Donald Trump - who have questioned unchecked military and economic support for Ukraine.

"Consider what would happen if the Republican appeasers are successful in pulling support for Ukraine," Pence said. "What message would it send to China, except a giant, flashing green light for the Chinese invasion of Taiwan."

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has increased its military activities near the island in recent years in response to what Beijing calls "collusion" between Taiwan and the United States.