China recently conducted a long-range missile flight test that remains shrouded in secrecy. A U.S. official confirmed that China's military fired a missile from the Taiyuan missile center, about 320 miles southwest of Beijing, to Korla, a city in western China some 1,800 miles away. The Sept. 25 test highlights what China military specialists say is the growing threat posed by Beijing's development of long- and short-range ballistic and cruise missiles, and its new missile defense interceptors.
The U.S. military opposes the use of force by countries locked in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea and will maintain its presence in the strategic region for years to come, an American commander said Wednesday.
The Obama administration has given in to pressure from China and will not send the aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea for upcoming naval exercises. The move followed protests from Beijing that a warship group in that area would pose a threat to China.
The admiral in charge of U.S. forces in the Pacific said Tuesday that U.S. and South Korean naval and air forces will conduct large-scale exercises near North Korea in a "show of force" against the communist state for its sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
