China Armed Forces

A port call by a U.S. missile cruiser to the Chinese naval base in Qingdao last year provided a stunning contrast between the two military powers' equipment and attitudes. As soon as the Aegis-class cruiser Bunker Hill docked, Chinese photographers and television camera operators, some with dubious journalistic credentials, were ushered aboard and allowed to photograph one of America's most state-of-the-art warships from stem to stern. But U.S.

A Hong Kong newspaper reported that China will begin a mass-scale military exercise this week involving 400,000 infantry, air force and navy personnel in coastal areas opposite Taiwan. The Sing Tao Daily report said the planned exercise shows the determination of China's military to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence and warned Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui not to "walk too far on the road to Taiwan's independence."

Defense Secretary William J. Perry arrived Sunday in China for a four-day visit that he hopes will help forge a closer military relationship with the world's largest army. His visit is the first to China by an American defense chief since most military contacts were severed after the bloody 1989 crackdown by People's Liberation Army troops in Tian An Men Square.

Is the wave of the future in Asia a Chinese military colossus? A Japan so overwhelmed by its populous neighbor that it would be a tool in China's hands? These are questions that Asians are beginning to ponder as China moves toward a new status as an economic superpower. And the possible answers pose dramatically opposing alternatives for Asia's future. A China concentrating on economic development would continue to provide, as it already has, a significant spur to Asian growth.

In an effort with important consequences for future military developments in Asia, an array of congressional and military leaders and scholars are urging the Clinton Administration to resume the long-frozen defense ties between the United States and China. A surprising number of American officials and organizations contend that the Administration should lift the ban on high-level military exchanges between the United States and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). The once-extensive U.S.

China has completed the most sweeping reshuffle of high-ranking military officers in the 43-year history of Communist rule, a Beijing-controlled Hong Kong newspaper said Tuesday. The shake-up was carried out "to fully ensure that the military is one with the party Central Committee in ideology, actions and politics," according to the report in the Wen Wei Po, a newspaper often used by the Beijing government to release sensitive news before it is officially announced by China's domestic press.

China is building up its military capability, methodically seeking the naval and air power it needs to assert dominance in Southeast Asia and to ensure that Taiwan, which Beijing views as a breakaway province, never assumes the status of a fully independent country. The most significant evidence of China's drive to acquire high-tech weaponry was its recent purchase of two dozen Sukhoi 27 fighter planes, which are expected to operate out of Hainan Island and China's eastern coast.

China is engaged in an extensive effort to buy advanced military hardware from hard-pressed Russian defense industries and to obtain technology from Russian scientists, say concerned U.S. officials and some Russian and Chinese defense specialists. In a major effort by China to modernize its military capability, the country is in some instances buying military supplies by dealing directly with individual factories throughout Russia, rather than by going through Moscow.

A Chinese submarine has disappeared in the Yellow Sea, and People's Liberation Army ships and helicopters have launched a search, according to information reaching Hong Kong. The conventional Romeo-class submarine, belonging to the North China Sea Fleet, left the Chinese port of Qingdao about two weeks ago on a Yellow Sea mission, sources said. In its reports, the Taiwan Central Daily News linked the submarine's disappearance with massive air and sea maneuvers that China held on Nov.

Michael Jackson's voice blared out in the brisk autumn air, but still it was a slow day at the sidewalk army recruitment booth in Beijing's suburban campus district. "I'm bad, I'm bad, don't you know it!" boomed out the rock star's voice on a loudspeaker set up to attract passersby. But not a single Chinese youth was anywhere near the army propaganda billboards and recruiters' table. The irony of the scene clearly escaped those in charge.