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Wednesday, 9 June 2021
07.06.21 China - problem plaguing its fighter jets
How China is trying to fix the biggest problem plaguing its fighter jets
China's leaders regularly tout their country's fighter jets as symbols of military capability.
But China's fighter jets have long had a major shortcoming: a lack of quality engines.
China's defense industry has struggled with that flaw, but Beijing is working hard to fix it.
Of all the fighters in China's arsenal, none are as important as the J-20.
The fifth-generation fighter also known as the "Mighty Dragon" is more than just a stealth fighter. It's an example that China, like the US, can build some of the best military technology in the world.
It has become a symbol for the Chinese Communist Party, shown proudly at military parades and mentioned repeatedly in Chinese defense publications.
After a brutal brawl with Indian troops on the countries' disputed border last year, China sent two J-20s to airbases in Xinjiang.
That deployment was too small to be of any real strategic significance, but the fact that China deployed its best fighter jet to a remote area in the Himalayas showed its seriousness. The J-20's deployment to China's Eastern Theatre Command is meant to send a similar message to Taiwan, Japan, and the US.
But the J-20, like all Chinese aircraft, has been hobbled by a lack of efficient and durable, high-performance jet engines.
That problem has plagued China's defense industry for a long time, and it's one Beijing is working hard to fix.
A long-standing problem
China's difficulties with jet engines may be surprising given the country's massive and successful military buildup.
It's also no secret that China is skilled at reverse-engineering foreign technology to make domestic copies. Virtually every Chinese fighter jet is based on stolen or reverse-engineered designs.
There is precedent for reverse-engineering jet engines, but while China has plenty of access to Russian jet engines, Beijing's attempts to produce its own domestic designs have been largely unsuccessful.
One of its earliest versions of a domestically designed engine, the WS-10A, regularly broke down after just 30 hours of use.
There are many reasons for these failures. First, Russia is aware China has stolen its intellectual property before and is reluctant to sell Beijing its best engines. Moscow also doesn't sell standalone engines, instead including them on existing jets, which makes copying them difficult.
Second, reverse-engineering skill doesn't easily translate into proficiency at developing new jet engines from scratch. That requires technological know-how that takes years of intensive learning to develop and generations to perfect.
The 'apex' of technological manufacturing
Perhaps most important, manufacturing jet engines is just extremely complicated.
"There are a few technologies that are really at the apex of technological manufacturing," and jet engines are one of them, Timothy Heath, a senior international and defense researcher at the Rand Corporation think tank, told Insider.
"These high-end technologies are so difficult to master that very few countries succeed. Many have failed," Heath added.
The main difficulty lies in the metallurgy and machining. A single engine on a civilian Boeing 747 airliner, for example, has at least 40,000 parts. Temperatures in that engine can reach as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and its fan blades can spin well over 3,000 times a minute during an hours-long flight.
Blueprints for such an engine can be copied, but the secrets to producing and shaping metal parts that can withstand those temperatures and spin at such tremendous RPM over thousands of hours - not to mention external factors like wind resistance and corrosion - without breaking aren't easy to find.
Another disadvantage for China is that the entities tasked with developing these complex machines are state-owned enterprises.
Historically speaking, SOEs struggle with innovation and developing cutting-edge technology. The reliance on reverse-engineering shows that this is the case with China, though there are certainly exceptions.
"They're better at just reverse-engineering simpler components and building simpler things," Heath said. "All this requires a level of expertise and competence that SOEs just often are not very good at. You have to recognize the limitations of the SOEs in China when it comes to innovation."
'Crucial technology cannot be bought'
China is more than aware of its engine problems.
Liu Daxiang, the deputy director of the science and technology committee at the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, last year called the development of domestic jet engines "a serious and urgent political task" and said China was facing an "unprecedented challenge."
"The established countries in aviation have become more strict with us when it comes to technology access," Liu said, adding that recent US efforts to restrict opportunities for the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei "tells us that crucial technology cannot be bought, even if you spend big."
In an attempt to get direct access to the secrets of jet manufacturing, the Chinese state-owned aviation firm Skyrizon, which has been blacklisted by the US government, tried to acquire a controlling stake in Motor Sich, a Ukrainian company that is one of the largest producers of engines for helicopters, jets, and missiles.
But the Ukrainian government this year stopped the deal, most likely because of pressure from the US.
Despite the setbacks, China has made some progress. Modern variants of the WS-10 have progressed enough that some Chinese jets are being fitted with them, including numerous J-20s.
Chinese sources have said that the WS-15, an engine designed specifically for the J-20, "may be finished within one or two years" and that once those engines are installed, the J-20 will be "on a par" with the US's fifth-generation F-22 Raptor.
Ballpoint pens, microchips, and jet engines
But many challenges remain. The complexity of the materials and metallurgy process, the costs of acquiring and maintaining the scientific and machining expertise, and the reluctance of other countries to assist China for fear of intellectual-property theft are but a few of them.
China faces a similar predicament in manufacturing high-end microchips and semiconductors. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars and major efforts by state-owned enterprises, China has not been able to create its own computer chips.
"It's just that some of these technologies are extremely difficult to do, and it doesn't matter how much money you throw at it - if you don't have the right combination of people, technologies, and skills, it's just not going to come together so easily," Heath said.
But China doesn't give up easily. In 2017, a Chinese state-owned firm announced plans to mass-produce ballpoint pen tips for the first time. China already made billions of pens, but only after a five-year, multimillion-dollar effort did it develop the technology to make tips for those pens domestically.
"All these elements can be reached only through long-term investment and incremental development," a Chinese researcher said at the time.
Read the original article on Business Insider
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/china-trying-fix-biggest-problem-223119915.html
Monday, 17 May 2021
30.05.20 Chinese Aggression in South China Sea - World Cannot Ignore
Beijing has been pressuring neighbors and building up fleet strength
USS Ronald Reagan, far left, operates with Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Izumo
in South China Sea in June 2019: more freedom of navigation patrols by not only the U.S. but other allies
will be required. (Handout photo from U.S. Navy)
For the past two decades, China's strategy in the South China Sea has been reminiscent of ancient general and strategist Sun Tzu, who said: "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." In this turbulent time, that patience is beginning to change as China, emboldened by the U.S.'s abdication of leadership and by a distracted world, gains in aggression.
READ HERE:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/World-cannot-ignore-Chinese-aggression-in-South-China-Sea
06.05.21 Duterte’s China groveling tells wider story of his economic failures
Kowtowing to Xi Jinping was Philippine president's original sin
For a supposed robust man, Rodrigo Duterte certain does love bending over for China — once more, and once more, and once more.
People stand outside shuttered businesses as they queue for free goods in Quezon city, Metro Manila, on Apr. 19: what Duterte forgot to look out for was the economy. © Getty Images
The Philippine president assumed the place proper out of the gate. In July 2016, lower than two weeks right into a presidency that may match Donald Trump’s for chaos, Manila gained a serious case towards Beijing over contested waters within the South China Sea.
The go well with, filed by predecessor Benigno Aquino, gave the Philippines huge bragging rights in Asia. Kudos to Manila, geopolitical wonks stated on the time, for taking up Beijing’s bullying, David-and-Goliath fashion. Manila’s landslide victory on the Everlasting Court docket of Arbitration at The Hague put China on the defensive in a area that shudders at its would possibly.
By no means thoughts, robust man Duterte basically stated. China’s largess, beginning with assist, loans, and joint oil and gasoline exploration offers, was simply too candy for the person promising to make the Philippines nice once more.
Now, Workforce Duterte is struggling vendor’s regret as China flexes its army muscle in Asian seas. The clearest proof? An expletive-heavy Could 3 tweet by International Minister Teodoro Locsin, stunning a world group that had turn into desensitized to Duterte’s penchant for dropping F-bombs.
This dust-up may appear unrelated to Duterte’s financial failures. But it’s a well timed reminder of why the Philippines is likely to be among the many area’s largest losers submit COVID-19.
Kowtowing to Chinese language President Xi Jinping was arguably Duterte’s authentic sin. Nonetheless, the longtime Davao Metropolis mayor has additionally prostrated himself at residence to the Marcos household, a gang whose affect predecessors had sought to scale back.
Duterte took energy 30 years after Ferdinand Marcos was ousted from the presidential palace. A Individuals Energy revolt led by Corazon Aquino, widow of assassinated Marco challenger Benigno Aquino, ended the cartoonishly corrupt dictator’s three-decade reign, and Aquino was elected nationwide chief in 1986.
Reformists discovered some poetic justice in her son being the person to get the Philippine financial system again on monitor. From 2010 to 2016, Aquino attacked graft, went after tax cheats, elevated transparency and restored order to the nationwide steadiness sheet. That scored Manila its first-ever investment-grade scores.
Aquino harnessed that success to tackle China’s maritime land grabs. And all these army ports and touchdown strips Xi claims Beijing isn’t constructing — towards mountains of satellite-image proof.
After which Duterte arrived to ease Xi’s thoughts in hopes Beijing would possibly throw the Philippines financial system some scraps. Irony abounds when you think about Duterte’s 22 years operating a southern metropolis famed for smashing crime — like some sheriff Clint Eastwood would possibly play. It earned him the nickname “Duterte Harry.”
Rodrigo Duterte, proper, is proven the best way by Xi Jinping in Beijing in October 2016: Duterte arrived to ease Xi’s thoughts.
On Monday, hours after Locsin lobbed rhetorical bombs on Twitter, Duterte was once more assuming the place. “China stays to be our benefactor,” Duterte stated. “Simply because we now have a battle with China doesn’t imply to say that we now have to be impolite and disrespectful.”
This obsequiousness will appear at odds to the United Nations, former U.S. President Barack Obama, the European Union, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, the Pope, Holocaust survivors, girls and everybody else Duterte has gone after.
An attention-grabbing query is how Joe Biden’s arrival is throwing the Duterte-Xi bromance off steadiness. Although former President Trump performed robust on China, the bull market in patents Beijing threw daughter Ivanka’s manner is a reminder of how Xi had his manner with Trump, too.
Since Biden entered the White Home in January, the U.S. signaled it has Manila’s again. Final month, Workforce Biden hit China for utilizing “maritime militia to intimidate, provoke and threaten different nations.” Odds are, Biden additionally will stand with Scott Morrison’s Australia and, more and more, Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand in pushing again towards Beijing’s bullying.
If solely Duterte had stood as much as Beijing in 2016, his authorities might need a foreign-policy win or two to trumpet. If solely at residence Duterte had caught to Aquino’s weapons. Duterte was elected so as to add firepower to Aquino’s governance push, which morphed the Philippines into an funding darling. As a substitute, Duterte pivoted to a bloody conflict of selection towards drug sellers.
Duterte’s emphasis on speed-over-transparency with big infrastructure tasks has been nice for the graft trade. On Aquino’s watch, Manila’s rating in Transparency Worldwide’s corruption perceptions index improved to Ninety fifth-place. At this time, it’s a hundred and fifteenth, trailing Macedonia, Mongolia and Panama.
On this context, Duterte’s odd obsession with the Marcos clan is a horrible look. He even gave plunderer Marcos, who died in exile in 1989, a hero’s burial. He lobbied early and infrequently to information Ferdinand Marcos Jr. into the vice presidency.
What Duterte forgot to look out for was the financial system. Principally, he rested on laurels of the speedy development Aquino bequeathed him. That, and no matter enterprise “benefactor” Xi tossed Manila’s manner. Together with corruption returning, so is inefficiency. In 2016, the Philippines was ranked forty second within the IMD World Competitiveness Scorecard. At this time it’s the forty fifth.
Crucial failing grade, although, is COVID-19. Issues are so dangerous that Duterte’s authorities is asking Filipinos working overseas to not return residence anytime quickly as infections surge and quarantine-facility funds run low.
So is the boldness that Duterte, 1,771 chaotic days on the job, has what it takes for proper an financial system shedding increasingly floor. Someway, I doubt persevering with to roll over for Xi will save the day. Expletives are optionally available.
William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and creator of “Japanization: What the World Can Study from Japan’s Misplaced A long time.”
https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Duterte-s-China-groveling-tells-wider-story-of-his-economic-failures
https://www.inter-empresarial.com/economy/20210505185530-dutertes-china-groveling-tells-wider-story-of-his-economic-failures.shtml
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