Navy to sack officer accused of ammo thefts
Tens of thousands of bullets taken from arsenal at Sattahip base
PUBLISHED : 20 Jul 2023 at 14:45
The navy has decided to sack an officer for prolonged absence from work amid allegations that he had stolen large quantities of ammunition from a naval base in Chon Buri.
The officer has been absent without leave since July 5, Royal Thai Navy spokesman Adm Pokkrong Monthatphalin said on Thursday. The navy will propose his dismissal to the Defence Ministry and seek a warrant for his arrest from the military court, he added.
“The navy is not nonchalant and will quickly find the wrongdoer in order to take disciplinary and criminal action,” he said without naming the suspect.
Sources said he was a chief petty officer second class, supervising an arsenal at the Sattahip Naval Base in Chon Buri.
Adm Pokkrong said that a search at the suspect’s house on Wednesday found stolen cartridges, which proved that the officer at large had stolen rounds of ammunition from the base.
It was reported earlier that the base had lost tens of thousands of M855 and M856 bullets for 5.56mm rifles and thousands of 40mm grenade launcher rounds.
Adm Pokkrong said financial transactions indicated that the thefts had taken place over a long period of time.
The suspect has turned off all his communication devices and is believed to be hiding in the country, the navy spokesman said.
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Xi Jinping meets Henry Kissinger as US seeks to defrost China ties
ReutersChinese president Xi Jinping has met former top diplomat Henry Kissinger, as the US pursues warmer ties with China.
Mr Kissinger’s surprise trip to the Chinese capital comes amid a flurry of visits by top US officials.
The former secretary of state, who played a crucial role in helping China emerge from diplomatic isolation in the 1970s, has also met senior Chinese officials this week.
The US has stressed he is visiting in his capacity as a private citizen.
But given his outsized stature in China, he is likely playing a crucial role as a backchannel for US-China negotiations, say experts.
Mr Kissinger was welcomed by Mr Xi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a more intimate space than the sprawling Great Hall of the People where official meetings with foreign diplomats are usually hosted.
A brief read-out did not give further details of their meeting, but lauded Mr Kissinger as a “legendary diplomat” and noted his previous achievements in brokering US rapprochement with China.
Mr Kissinger, who landed on Monday, also met top diplomat Wang Yi and defence minister Li Shangfu – who is under US sanctions – this week.
Chinese statements on the meetings have struck a conciliatory tone, with Mr Wang and Mr Li emphasising the need for respect, co-operation and “peaceful co-existence” between the two superpowers.
The read-outs also quoted Mr Kissinger as saying he was a “friend of China” and that “neither the United States nor China can afford to treat the other as an adversary”.
It is not known to what extent the US government was involved in Mr Kissinger’s trip. A State Department spokesman said earlier this week that they were aware of his visit, and that Chinese officials had also informed Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he visited Beijing in June.
Apart from Mr Blinken, Mr Kissinger is the only US figure Mr Xi has met in recent weeks – a measure of the respect the 100-year-old veteran diplomat still commands in China. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and US special envoy for climate John Kerry have also paid visits to Beijing, but did not get face time with China’s president.
Though Mr Kissinger has gained a controversial reputation in other parts of Asia for his role in the Vietnam War, in China, he remains highly regarded for helping the country emerge from diplomatic isolation.
In 1971, while the US and China officially had no diplomatic ties, Mr Kissinger had paid secret visits to Beijing to arrange a visit by then-US President Nixon.
The following year Mr Nixon landed on Chinese soil and met top leaders including Mao Zedong. It paved the way for the normalisation of US-China diplomatic relations and the opening-up of China to the world.
Since then, Mr Kissinger has been welcomed in China more than 100 times, Thursday’s read-out said.
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Anutin in wait-and-see mode
Bhumjaithai leader says he has not yet been contacted by Pheu Thai about possibly joining a new coalition
Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul has taken a wait-and-see approach on the possibility of forming a government with the Pheu Thai Party, saying the latter has not contacted him yet.
Mr Anutin, whose party secured 71 House seats, the third-most in the May 14 election, said on Thursday that his stance on joining the eight-party coalition with the Move Forward Party (MFP) and Pheu Thai remained unchanged. Bhumjaithai earlier declared that it could not work with any party that sought to amend Section 112, or the lese-majeste law. The party also opposes any attempts to form a minority government.
He confirmed that he has not yet been contacted by Pheu Thai, which has emerged in pole position to form a government after parliament on Wednesday rejected a bid to renominate MFP leader Pita Limjaroenrat for a prime ministerial vote.
Mr Anutin, 56, said he would adopt a wait-and-see approach now because the eight parties in the coalition were still together.
Asked if Bhumjaithai would join if Pheu Thai took the lead in forming a government with Move Forward remaining in the coalition, Mr Anutin simply said had already made his stance clear.
He declined to comment on whether he thought attempts to form a government would reach a deadlock, saying his party played by the rules. The issue would be raised with the parties that were trying to form the government.
The next prime ministerial vote has been scheduled for Thursday, July 27. Move Forward insists that procedurally, Mr Pita’s name could be put forward again. However, it is widely believed that Srettha Thavisin of Pheu Thai will be nominated.
If the Pheu Thai nominee fails to secure a majority, however, Mr Anutin has been mentioned as a compromise candidate in a new coalition arrangement.
When asked whether he was ready to be a prime minister if the existing coalition parties came to a dead end, Mr Anutin said, “Let’s get to that day first.”
He also said he has not yet held any talks with Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, leader of the Palang Pracharath Party and its prime ministerial candidate, or coordinated with any political parties to discuss the matter.
Asked if Bhumjaithai would be disappointed if Pheu Thai nominated Mr Srettha with Move Forward still in the coalition, Mr Anutin questioned why reporters kept asking the question, since he had made his party’s stance known.
“Ask Pheu Thai,” he said, when asked whether Pheu Thai would abandon the MFP.
Bhumjaithai expects to call a meeting with its MPs one day before the next joint House and Senate sitting to decide on its strategy, he said.
Mr Anutin said his party must maintain political etiquette and follow the rules because it has not played any role in government formation to this point. As long as the eight coalition parties are still together, and the MoU they signed is still in force, the ball is in their court.
If a prime minister is chosen next week, he said, he would comment further on the formation of the government then.
Mr Anutin’s family is the major shareholder in Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction Plc, one of the country’s largest contractors. He held cabinet positions in the early years of the Thai Rak Thai administration led by Thaksin Shinawatra in 2004-05 before he and dozens of other party executives were banned for five years by the Constitutional Court.
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In the Annamite mountains, rare species edge toward extinction
Between the misty peaks of the Annamite mountains, animals as-yet unknown to science pick through primaeval forests.
Home to such endemic creatures as shimmering, iridescent snakes, the fancifully coloured douc’s langur and the saola, a rare deer-like animal also known as the “Asian unicorn”, the Annamites are a biodiversity hotspot.
But these densely forested mountains, which span the border highlands of Laos, Vietnam and eastern Cambodia, are increasingly under threat. A recent World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report celebrated the distinctive animals of the range while sounding an alarm that deforestation and an estimated multi-billion-dollar, illegal wildlife trade is gradually eradicating such creatures – leaving open the possibility that as-yet unknown species could be wiped out before ever being recorded to science. Even if humans are unaware of these losses, forests across the range are already bearing the ecological toll.
“As wildlife species disappear, their ecological roles are lost, and the forest changes too, in terms of composition, structure and function,” said Yoganand Kandasamy, a conservation biologist and senior author of the report.
Despite being considered a single range, the Annamites feature diverse habitats the WWF report describes as an “evolutionary laboratory”. These include limestone karst hills, mature secondary forest and patches of primary wet evergreen forest. The WWF notes the Annamites have one of the largest contiguous natural forested areas in continental Southeast Asia with nearly 11,000 square kilometres of habitat.
This has helped a number of endemic species to evolve.
Among these is the kha-nyou, a karst-dweller and so-called ‘living fossil’ first scientifically recorded in 2005 from specimens collected almost a decade prior in a Lao market. The sole surviving member of the Diatomyidae family, all other species in its taxonomic category are thought to have vanished more than 10 million years ago.
But modern history has left deep scars on the forests, which sustained heavy damage during the Vietnam War. More recently, according to data from Global Forest Watch, Vietnam has lost more than 740,000 hectares of humid forest in the past 20 years, contributing to about a 21% decline in total tree cover. WWF points out that much of this deforestation happened in the Annamites.
The mountains have held onto their habitat better than some lowland areas due to the difficulty of access there, but even with legally protected status, new roads and agricultural expansions have gradually crept up the slopes. This has also helped to open the mountains to enterprising loggers and hunters.
The preferred tool of many poachers in the Annamites, and elsewhere in the region, is the snare – a twisted loop of rope or wire used to trap animals indiscriminately. Such snares have contributed to what conservationists in the region call “empty forest syndrome”, in which habitats maintain their trees but are cleared of animal life.
Out of the suspected 12.3 million snares hidden in the undergrowth in the region, more than 120,000 have been removed from the Hue and Quang Nam saola nature reserves in Vietnam. This industrial-scale snaring crisis is fueled by market demands for meat, traditional medicines and exotic pets.
Snares are often sold in local village stores, and vary in materials and sizes. Some are made with car winch cables to catch larger animals while the more abundantly found are twisted motorbike brakes and clutch wires, explained Yoganand.
Even with substantial forest cover still remaining in the area, conservationists say the sheer volume of these snares are changing the Annamites’ natural character and ecological functions.
“[This is] because animal populations, which are integral to the forests, are being lost,” Yoganand said.
The loss of seed-dispersing animals such as the Annamites’ gibbons could favour the spread of more wind-dispersed trees, which are smaller and less dense than animal-dispersed ones. This change to the tree composition could result in lower carbon sequestration and storage by the forests, Yoganand explained, diminishing a crucial ecosystem service on which humans rely.
Many gibbon populations of the Annamites have already declined and are becoming locally extinct due to snaring – often to then be sold into the pet trade.
The local human populations play various roles in the wildlife trade and the longevity of Annamite endemics. The WWF said some communities have acted as good stewards, pointing to one in the Quang Binh province of Vietnam that has protected the Hatinh langur from illegal hunting for more than a decade.
But other locals are involved in the trapping and hunting to supply urban wildlife markets. Others are simply unaware of an animal’s endemic status and the role the species has in the critical ecosystem services of the forest.
From the perspective of the most vulnerable communities nestled along the Annamites and relying on it for subsistence, the short-term economic interests in the wildlife trade shroud the consequences of a decaying ecosystem.
“Well-functioning forests help vulnerable communities, often acting as a safety net to prevent people from further hardships during difficult times,” Yoganand said. “It helps them become resilient to climate change and other disastrous events such as prolonged droughts.”
Chinaâs spaceplane program making hypersonic strides
China has just tested a new type of air-launched spaceplane design in its ultra-powerful hypersonic wind tunnel, with the futuristic craft designed for commercial, reconnaissance and military roles.
The Chinese government has released footage of the world’s most powerful wind tunnel performing a scale separation test of what appears to be an air-launched spaceplane from a mothership aircraft, The Warzone reported citing a report aired by state-run China Central Television’s (CCTV) Channel 13.
The Warzone notes that the spaceplane’s design looks like designs seen in wind tunnel test pictures and an accompanying video the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA) released in 2019. However, the report says there are no immediate indications to show that the two tests are related.
In June 2023, Asia Times reported on China’s JF-22 hypersonic wind tunnel’s progress after passing an evaluation the previous month. It can reportedly simulate the atmosphere in which a spacecraft re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, according to Chinese scientists from the National Natural Science Foundation of China quoted in media reports.
The scientists confirmed that the JF-22’s detonation-driven high-enthalpy shock tunnel project’s performance indicators, which include effective test time, temperature, pressure and nozzle flow, had achieved international standards.
Its goal is to accelerate the development of a space-to-earth shuttle system, and, if successful, achieve a 90% cost reduction for launching satellites and spacecraft.
China started building the JF-22 in 2018 and completed it in August 2021 with a length of 167 meters, a diameter of four meters, and sustainable airflow of three to 10 kilometers per second.
That makes it the world’s largest and fastest hypersonic wind tunnel, capable of simulating hypersonic flight conditions up to Mach 30 for a maximum of 130 milliseconds. In contrast, LENS II, the most advanced US hypersonic wind tunnel, can only reach Mach 7 with a maximum runtime of 30 milliseconds.
Moreover, Asia Times reported in September 2022 about the completion of China’s Sichuan-based free-piston driven hypersonic shock tunnel, currently the largest facility of its type worldwide.
It can simulate extreme flight conditions up to Mach 33, or 2.5 to 11.5 kilometers per second. The facility has a diameter of 80 centimeters, twice the size of the X3 Expansion Tube at the University of Queensland in Australia, which was previously the largest facility of its kind.
As with the JF-22, the Sichuan-based facility can provide ground testing support for developing hypersonic vehicles such as scramjet-powered aircraft by simulating the escape velocity from Earth’s atmosphere. At the same time, it can contribute to other types of missions, such as putting Chinese astronauts on the moon.
However, that type of hypersonic test facility is limited by its short simulation length, which lasts only a thousandth of a second, which is too short for some experiments. The new facility is thus expected to work with other wind tunnels to overcome that limitation.
China’s J-22 and Sichuan-based free-piston driven hypersonic shock tunnel will both be instrumental in China’s spaceplane, which may be built as a multi-mission platform and serve as the basis for future space weapons.
Asia Times reported in May 2023 on the successful return of China’s Shenlong mini spaceplane, which touched down in the Gobi Desert after 276 days in orbit after being launched in August of the previous year. While Shenlong’s flight was much shorter than the US X-37B, which spent 908 days in orbit, it was still a major milestone for China’s space program.
Since its August 2022 launch, China’s Shenlong mini spaceplane has conducted multiple large maneuvers that have raised its altitude and demonstrated formation flying.
It appears to be self-propelled in two or three docking or capture missions. China’s Shenlong and its successor designs may also launch satellites into orbit, conduct reconnaissance missions and perform military tasks.
A reusable mass satellite launch platform is critical to establishing satellite constellations, which major world powers increasingly view as a strategic asset. China’s spaceplane mothership is thus a vital reusable launch platform.
This month, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the race between China and the US to find ways to cheaply and efficiently launch low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, which are the building blocks of satellite constellations for high-speed broadband internet access.
WSJ noted that 360 million people in China still lack internet access, with LEO satellites viewed as an ideal solution to provide internet access in remote areas. The report also notes that reusable satellite launch vehicles can save significant sums on launch costs for building satellite constellations.
WSJ also noted that China plans to build 7,808 LEO broadband internet satellites, but no enterprise in China has as of yet created a reusable launch platform like SpaceX’s Falcon 9. However, China’s Shenlong spaceplane and similar designs may serve as reusable mass satellite launch platform options.
Hypersonic test facilities may also be vital for developing advanced reconnaissance drones that can fly at supersonic and hypersonic speeds to evade enemy air defenses.
In April 2023, Asia Times reported on China’s rocket-powered supersonic WZ-8 drone, a cutting-edge reconnaissance system that can gather real-time mapping data to inform strategy or pre-determine missile strike targets in preparation for a future conflict. Leaked documents have shown the flight paths for WZ-8 missions over Taiwanese and South Korean airspace.
In addition to being a reusable mass satellite launch platform and high-speed reconnaissance asset, China’s spaceplane mothership design may also serve as a fractional orbital bombardment platform (FOBS).
Ritwik Gupta notes in a June 2023 article for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that FOBS is a payload delivered into LEO and then re-enters the atmosphere to bombard a target before completing a full orbit.
Gupta notes that a FOBS has several advantages over traditional ballistic missiles, including global range, the ability to launch attacks from multiple directions and a shorter flight time versus intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
He writes that while the Soviet Union created FOBS in the 1960s, they were less accurate than ICBMs, their time-to-target advantage was neutralized by enhanced US space-based detection and their use was explicitly prohibited by the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II (SALT II).
However, Gupta says combining hypersonic weapons technology with FOBS can solve the latter’s limitations, as hypersonic weapons can maneuver to fine tune their final approach to their targets and LEO is increasingly accessible through smaller space payloads.
The combination would also appear to exploit a loophole in SALT II forbidding the installation of any nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in “orbit around the Earth.”
In October 2021, Financial Times reported that China may have tested such a weapon in August of that year, with the Chinese military launching a rocket that then launched a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) that circled the Earth in LEO before cruising to its target.
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