Miles Yu
Columns by Miles Yu
Inside China: Stealth fighter revealed
Chinese military forums on the Internet were abuzz recently over the posting of the first photo of China's latest test flight of a prototype jet. Published January 23, 2014
Inside China: Taiwan’s anti-sub drill
The Taiwanese navy this week conducted an anti-submarine warfare drill as part of a recent effort to improve the island's defenses against a Chinese underwater attack. Published January 16, 2014
Inside China: Monument honors fallen spies; China-Taiwan spy exhange talks break down
A 30,000 square-foot monument honoring fallen agents who had been sent to spy on Taiwan opened recently to the public at the command headquarters area of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) outside Beijing. Published December 19, 2013
Inside China: Ukraine gets nuclear umbrella
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych escaped protests in his country last week with a state visit to Beijing, where he received China's pledge to protect Ukraine under its nuclear umbrella. Published December 12, 2013
Inside China: Airspace acrimony in East China Sea
China's effort to isolate Japan as its primary regional competitor has unraveled in less than a week: World powers rallied to echo Tokyo's outrage over Beijing setting up an air defense zone that encompasses much of the air defense zones of neighboring countries. Published November 28, 2013
Inside China: Beijing’s embarrassing relief effort for the Philippines
China, the world's second-largest economy and a key member of the Asia-Pacific community of nations, is providing the Philippines with an initial disaster relief package totaling $100,000 — an international example of the government's stingy response to humanitarian disasters. Published November 14, 2013
Inside China: A parade of paranoia about U.S. ‘engagement’ in China
Comprehensive "engagement" has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy toward China since the Nixon administration. But the bedrock of Beijing's U.S. policy is paranoia over what Chinese leaders believe is a "peaceful evolution" conspiracy designed to overthrow the communist dictatorship via the ideological and spiritual infiltration of China's society. Published November 7, 2013
Inside China: Nuclear submarines capable of widespread attack on U.S.
Chinese state-run media revealed for the first time this week that Beijing's nuclear submarines can attack American cities as a means to counterbalance U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific. Published October 31, 2013
Inside China: Pacific challenges
The People's Liberation Army's (PLA) navy has begun a massive exercise in the western Pacific that is widely seen as a response to the recently completed U.S.-Japan-South Korean joint naval drills led by the aircraft carrier USS George Washington near the Korean Peninsula. Published October 24, 2013
Inside China: Taiwan invasion exercise
More than 20,000 Chinese soldiers, sailors and airmen carried out a boisterous joint-operation exercise this month, with Taiwan as the apparent simulated target of a Normandy-style invasion. Published October 17, 2013
Inside China: Eye in the sky over Eastern Asia, Australia
China announced last week that its army now has the capability to strike anywhere in the Western Pacific, including Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia. Published October 3, 2013
Inside China: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in Beijing
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived in Beijing on Sunday and signed away a big part of his country's development projects to China. Published September 26, 2013
Inside China: Internet crackdown on opinion leaders
Commentators in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) are cheering the government crackdown on online opinion leaders. Published September 19, 2013
Inside China: Military entertainers
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) operates a large "entertainment corps" known for its extraordinary privilege, unique access to power elites and wasteful extravagance. Now President Xi Jinping is vowing to tighten controls on military entertainers. Published September 5, 2013
Inside China: Beijing’s hot Bo-tato
The show trial in China of recently purged communist leader Bo Xilai has become an unexpected national sensation. Mr. Bo has cleverly — and some say with carefully delivered court eloquence — turned the tables on his accusers and indirectly on the Communist Party judicial system. And the incumbent Communist Party supreme leadership appears to be furious. Published August 29, 2013
Inside China: China ridicules Indian navy
The successful launch of India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant, and the tragic accident of an Indian navy Kilo-class submarine that killed 18 sailors created fodder for Chinese state media to use in ridiculing its neighbor. Published August 22, 2013
Inside China: Military delays commercial flights
In a rare moment of candor, the official China Daily newspaper disclosed that China's notorious commercial airline delays are caused mainly by a near monopoly on airspace by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force. Published August 15, 2013
Inside China: PLA on Taiwan’s weapons
A People's Liberation Army major general said recently that Taiwan should abandon the U.S. as its main weapons supplier and buy arms from Beijing instead. Published August 1, 2013
Inside China: China’s‘ Xi courts Taiwan’s Ma
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou of the ruling Kuomintang Party received a rare congratulation message from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Analysts say the message contained some surprises. Published July 25, 2013
Inside China: China, Pakistan reach deal on ‘economic corridor’
China and Pakistan signed an agreement July 5 that will create an "economic corridor" linking northwestern China to the Arabian Sea, according to the official government newspaper China Daily. Published July 18, 2013