World View: China Conducts Flight Test of DF-41 Long-Range Nuclear-Capable Missile

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• China conducts flight test of DF-41 long-range nuclear-capable missile
• Al-Qaeda apologizes for terrorist attack on Yemen hospital
• Egypt’s junta targets secularists in addition to Muslim Brothers

China conducts flight test of DF-41 long-range nuclear-capable missile

Purported photo of Chinas DF-41 long-range nuclear-capable missile (Free Beacon)

U.S. defense officials are saying that China’s military has conducteda second flight test of its Dong Feng-41 (DF-41) long-range missile,capable of hitting targets in the United States with a nuclearwarhead. When fully deployed, a single one of these missiles will becapable of carrying up to 10 nuclear warheads, each targeting adifferent location. According to a report by the Air Force NationalAir and Space Intelligence Center:

“China has the most active and diverse ballisticmissile development program in the world. It is developing andtesting offensive missiles, forming additional missile units,qualitatively upgrading missile systems, and developing methods tocounter ballistic missile defenses.

The Chinese ballistic missile force is expanding in both size andtypes of missiles.”

China is also rapidly deploying a JL-2 missile that can be launchedfrom a submarine, carrying three warheads. This would allow China tolaunch simultaneous attacks with long-range land-based missiles inChina to target the western United States, and then use submarines toattack cities on the east coast.

In 2011, I reported on China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile.( “2-Aug-11 World View — China could defeat U.S. in war over Taiwan”) That missile wasdesigned to target U.S. aircraft carriers. The problem withtargeting any ship with a missile is that the ship can keep movingas the missile travels. So the DF-21D is designed to travelat high altitudes to the region of the aircraft carrier, andthen use heat sensors to detect its new position.

China’s rapid development of diverse missiles targeting America willchange the entire geopolitical situation. China is currently usingits vast military power to annex or threaten to annex regions ofIndia, central Asia, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea thathave historically belonged to other nations. These countries havedepended on the United States for protection from China’s military,but with the U.S. itself under threat, China will be able to act moreaggressively towards its neighbors, and confiscate additional regions.The concern among these nations is exacerbated by President BarackObama’s perceived weakness in foreign affairs, and his continuingreductions in deployed warheads that might serve to deter a Chineseattack.

As I’ve been saying for almost ten years, Generational Dynamicspredicts that China is rapidly and aggressively preparing forpreemptive war against the United States. When China decides toattack, they’ll do so to achieve maximum surprise and with maximumforce. So they’ll launch hundreds of nuclear missiles at Americancities, military installations, and aircraft carriers.

The U.S. will still function after such an attack, even with numerousdestroyed cities, and it’s doubtful that China will win the war in thelong run. China will be facing enemies all around it — Japan,Vietnam, India, Russia — and will also be dealing internalrebellions. After five or six years, the survivors will start torebuild the world, and will vow that no similar war should ever beallowed to happen again. Washington Free Beacon and Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence (PDF)

Al-Qaeda apologizes for terrorist attack on Yemen hospital

In the Muslim world, the biggest complaint about al-Qaeda is that theykill a lot more Muslims than Westerners. Gunfire and bombings thatkill Muslims in markets, restaurants and mosques are quite common inIraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other countries. Butapparently a car bomb attack on a hospital in military complex inSanaa, the capital of Yemen, on December 5 has drawn so much criticismto Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that they’ve actually beenforced to issue an apology.

Of course there was no apology on the day of the attack. On thatday, AQAP’s media arm tweeted:

“[The compound was] stormed… after the mujahedeen(holy warriors) proved that it accommodates drone control roomsand American experts. As part of a policy to target drone controlrooms, the mujahedeen have dealt a heavy blow to one. Suchsecurity headquarters in partnership with the Americans in theirwar on these Muslim people are a justified target wherever theymay be.”

Unfortunately for AQAP, their 25 terrorist attackers didn’t kill anyAmericans in drone control rooms. Instead, they killed 52 hospitalpatients.

But now, over two weeks later, AQAP is humming a different tune.According to an AQAP military commander:

“The attack was on the ministry of defense, it was noton the hospital. We told them (jihadists) to be cautious, not toenter the prayer place or the hospital. Eight of our brothers werecautious, and one did not. May Allah forgive him and have mercy onhim.”

AFP and AFP (12/6/2013)

Egypt’s junta targets secularists in addition to Muslim Brothers

Ever since the July 3 army coup that deposed President Mohamed Morsiand his Muslim Brotherhood government, the army has jailed or killedthousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But on Sunday, threesecular and liberal activists were sentenced to three years in jailfor organizing an unlicensed protest, and fined $7,100 each. Theywere found guilty of violating a law passed on November 24 thatforbids protests without police permission. Recent actions by theruling junta signal a new direction of returning the government to afull dictatorship, as it had been under Hosni Mubarak. Al-Ahram (Cairo) and AFP

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