Chinese Jet Locks Radar on Japanese Fighters, Sparking Concern

Chinese Jet Locks Radar on Japanese Fighters, Sparking Concern

Welcome to China in Focus. I’m Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. China has set a new record with its trade surplus topping $1 trillion as exports surge beyond US markets. Other countries are raising concerns. European leaders are warning Beijing they could impose tariffs if cheap Chinese imports continue to flood European markets. Tensions are rising in the Pacific after a Chinese jet locked its radar on Japanese fighters near Japan’s territory over the weekend. We strongly protested to the Chinese side and we have sternly demanded that it not recur. We will respond calmly and resolutely. Japan is warning Australia to stay vigilant as China ramps up its military activity across the Pacific. Retired Marine Colonel Grant Nam highlights why the first island chain is critical to regional defense. If you break the chain, you take Taiwan, then you can easily push the Chinese military into the central Pacific. You swing up to the north, you isolate Japan, swing down to the south, and you isolate Australia. You make it very hard for the Americans to operate. And top US and Australian officials sit down in Washington with China and Indoacific security topping the agenda. [Music] For the first time in history, China’s trade surplus topped $1 trillion as the country’s redirect shipments to non- US markets. In November, exports to European nations, Australia, and Southeast Asia surged while shipments to the US fell sharply. Economists say Washington’s steep tariffs, averaging around 48%, continue to weigh on Chinese exporters profit margins. The world’s second largest economy has ramped up efforts to diversify its export markets since Trump took office again. It’s been pursuing closer trade ties with Southeast Asia and the EU. Beijing had used Chinese firm’s global footprint to establish new production hubs for low tariff access. Customs data showed on Monday that China’s exports grew 5.9% yearonear. The data showed Chinese shipments to the US dropped 29% in November year on year. That was even though the month began with news that the US and China had agreed to scale back some of their tariffs. Exports to the European Union grew an annual 14.8% last month, while shipments to Australia surged by over a third. As China’s exports surpass the $1 trillion milestone, European nations are raising concerns over the growing trade gap. Exports are up more than 5% this year, reaching around $3.4 trillion. European leaders say the imbalance is becoming increasingly hard to ignore. On Sunday, French President Amman warned that if Beijing doesn’t address it, Europe could impose higher tariffs on Chinese imports similar to the US. He says Europe is losing momentum in areas like automobiles, technology, and luxury goods. According to the Wall Street Journal, China now makes up around 15% of global exports. And nearly onethird of all goods shipped worldwide by volume. In other words, for every container coming in from Europe, four are leaving China. Meanwhile, China is expanding its exports beyond Western markets, shipping more goods into regions like Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In Southeast Asia’s six largest economies, Chinese exports have jumped more than 20% compared to last year, according to the Financial Times. Economists say part of the surge comes from dumping, where Beijing floods foreign markets with cheaper goods and squeezing local producers. That’s now prompting tighter import rules and tariff discussions across Asian and European countries. A military incident between Japan and China is in the spotlight. On Monday, Japan disputed China’s characterization of a weakened occurrence involving the two count’s military aircraft. In a rare move, a Chinese aircraft locked its radars on Japanese fighters near Japan’s Okinawa Islands. Japan says its self-defense forces had not disrupted the Chinese Navy’s flight training as Beijing claimed. In response, Tokyo summoned the Chinese ambassador over the incident as tensions continue to rise. Meanwhile, here’s what Japanese Prime Minister Takayichi had to say about the situation. China’s radar lockon was a dangerous act exceeding the scope necessary for the safe flight of aircraft and it is extremely regrettable that such an incident occurred. We strongly protested to the Chinese side and we have sternly demanded that it not recur. We will respond calmly and resolutely. A Chinese carrier striker group launched intense air operations near Taiwan and Japan in recent days with more than 100 military ships involved at one point. The Chinese embassy denied Tokyo’s claims. It says Japanese aircraft had endangered flight safety by approaching China’s aircraft carrier as it changed with three missile destroyer escorts. The encounters come after Takichi warned last month that Japan could respond to any Chinese military action against Taiwan that threatened its security. Meanwhile, Japan is calling on Australia to stay vigilant over China’s growing military aggression. Japan’s defense minister sat down with his Australian counterpart on Sunday in Tokyo. NTD’s Flora Huang has more. In the face of increasing threats from Beijing, two US allies, Japan and Australia are now vowing to work together to uphold peace in the region. We do not want to see any change to uh the status quo across the Taiwan straits. Um, in in general terms, uh, Minister Cooumi and I spoke about the way in which Australia and Japan can work together to, uh, assert the rules-based order and provide for the peace and stability of the Indoacific. Tokyo launched a strong protest with Beijing, accusing a Chinese fighter jet of radar locking aircraft belonging to Japan’s self-defense force on two occasions. Yesterday, there were two incidents in which Chinese military aircraft directed their radars at Japan’s Self-Defense Force aircraft. Such actions are dangerous and go beyond what is necessary for the safe operation of aircraft. We lodged a strong protest with the Chinese side and firmly demanded that such incidents not be repeated. Japanese defense officials quoted by the country’s news agency said the Chinese carrier called Lia Ning was conducting aircraft exercises which violated Japan’s airspace and when Japan sent fighter jets to remind the Chinese aircraft to leave the Chinese aircraft lock its radars on the Japanese planes. Fighter jet radars can be used for search or missile attacks. This is reportedly the first instance of a radar lock between Chinese and Japanese warplanes. The Chinese defense ministry responded hours after Tokyo’s initial protest. China refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing. A Beijing’s spokesperson accused Japan of testing the waters of militarism and disrupting its defense trainings. The incidents took place over high seas southeast of Japan’s Okinawa where about three quarters of US military facilities in the country are located. Flora NTD News. Taiwan and Japan are part of what’s known as the first island chain. Why is that so important especially for preventing China from taking Taiwan and pushing into the Pacific? We top retired Marine Colonel Grant Nam, a senior fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies and author of When China Attacks. Well, the first island chain that you mentioned and Taiwan is in the very middle of it. If you think of it like a castle wall, uh it has beeled Chinese strategic planners forever because without the ability to get through that chain, an opponent, an enemy can really prevent you from doing it unless it’s at great cost. So if you break the chain, you take Taiwan, then you can easily push the Chinese military into the central Pacific, you swing up to the north, you isolate Japan, swing down to the south, and you isolate Australia. You make it very hard for the Americans to operate. They’ve been operating freely since World War II. And suddenly they have to deal with a a very difficult China problem, Chinese military. But there’s also once again a political psychological aspect to all of this. You think about what the the message is if Taiwan comes under Chinese control, effectively 23 million free people enslaved. Well, it’s going to send a message that American military might couldn’t prevent this from happening. US economic and financial pressure couldn’t do it and US nuclear weapons couldn’t do it. So, anyone in Asia or elsewhere that had thinks they’ve got a a promise real or implicit from the Americans to protect them, they’re going to have second thoughts. And I think you will find that Asia turns red overnight or at least a really dark pink as everybody tries to cut the best deal they can with the Chinese and the Americans would be really humiliated effectively pushed out of the Western Pacific and you would feel the effects of that globally as it suddenly looks like the Americans are on the sort of the sort of a ride down and it’s the Chinese who are the have the upper hand. So Taiwan has an outsized importance beyond just the military and that’s as important as anything. I think the actual presence of chips or semiconductor manufacturing on Taiwan and the importance of that to the global economy that’s just gravy from the Chinese perspective. If if it’s still there when they get Taiwan if they were to try to get it, uh that would be very nice. But there’s other reasons that I’ve just named that are enough to make Taiwan a very juicy target for Xiinping. On top of these economic and geopolitical aspects, there’s another concern from the Chinese Communist Party. Grant Nisham says Taiwan is quote an existential threat to the communist regime. One thing about Taiwan that I didn’t mention is to the Chinese is an existential threat. You would ask, well, how can a place with 23 million people be an existential threat for a place with 1.4 4 billion maybe a few less compared to given what the Chinese have said. Um but the reason is it’s a free society run by people of Chinese origins many of them not the ever not the indigenous people um and it shows that they can handle democracy freedoms consensual government all of the liberties that the civilized world takes for granted and to the Chinese Communist Party this is a daily reminder that they are that they are not legitimate they haven’t been chosen by anyone and their entire rule depends on having a boot on the neck of their citizens and say it gives the lie to this 24/7 and everyone on mainland China can see this knows this and that is one thing that does frighten the Chinese communists as more than anything and it’s one of the reasons they want to snuff it out. China is projecting military power further into the Pacific expanding beyond Taiwan and Japan to include Australia. How should these US allies conduct effective deterrence against China’s growing aggression? one thing, you’ve got to be there. You’ve got to be there all the time. So, you’re going to need much more of an American, Japanese, even South Korean if they’re still on our side. Australian presence in this region. It has to be a military presence, commercial presence, diplomatic. And there isn’t enough of that. The Australians will say, “Well, it’s our turf. It’s our patch is the word they use, and we’ve got everything under control.” Well, they’ve been saying that for decades, and the Chinese now are in have the upper hand in the region. So you’ve got to be there, but at the same time, you have got to respond more than just sort of one for one, but you have to look at some other things the Chinese don’t want you to do to put pressure on them. And they tell you what they don’t like and they don’t like having sort of trade used as a weapon against them. So there are things the Chinese economy has to have. Put pressure on them that way. They need foreign exchange. They need to export to earn money. Well, put some pressure on them that way. expose the obscene wealth of Xiinping and his cronies and let them explain that to the five to 600 million Chinese who live on five bucks a day or less. So there’s other things, other ways to put pressure on the Chinese RA besides just if they send out a ship, we send out a ship. But you do, as I say, you have to be there in a military, diplomatic, political sense, an economic sense, but at the same time, you apply pressure. You you can make it clear enough that this is a response to that. Uh but we’ve heard a lot of talk out of the Australians for a long time, and it doesn’t appear that the Chinese are paying much attention to them. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hexath are welcoming their Australian counterparts to Washington DC. Their discussions on Monday are centered around Indoacific security and China’s growing influence in the region. Here’s Rubio on the future of the US Australian relationship. This is something we share in common not just with Australia but with many of our allies around the world. the desire to diversify diversify supply chains and the belief that in order for us to be able to do anything whether it’s defend our countries, defend our allies or defend each other, but also to build our economies and to prosper as economies, we have to have critical critical mineral supplies and supply chains that are reliable and that are diverse and not overly invested in one place where they can be used as leverage against us or our partners of the world. And so this is something that you’ll find the US and Australia working very closely on and it’s at the cornerstone of everything we plan to do together in the months and years to come. This is the 40th annual ministerial meeting between the two countries. Rubio touted the strength of the US Australian relationship. He said the meeting today will build on the momentum that came from the meeting between President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October. Rubio also said he will visit Australia next year. The two Australian ministers said the US is Australia’s principal ally and the cornerstone of their strategic and foreign policy. They said their relationship is full steam ahead. Hexath said that on the defense side, the two countries are working on force posture and industrial cooperation. The US and Australia are both members of Quad and AUS. Countering Communist China’s security threats in the Indoacific has also been a central theme of their relationship. Coming up, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are set to vote this week on the defense bill aiming to push President Trump’s agenda forward. The legislation includes measures focused on countering China. The White House has released its new national security strategy with a focus on the Western Hemisphere, Taiwan, and warnings to Europe. We bring on the co-founder of Silent Majority Strategies to unpack it all. This idea in the West that everyone in China was just going to be like the West, that was always a fantasy. More on that after the break here on China in Focus. Welcome back to China in Focus. I’m Tiffany Meyer. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are set to vote this week on changes to the Department of War. Over the weekend, they unveiled the final defense bill, which aims to lock in President Trump’s agenda, including measures focused on countering China. NTD’s Molina Weissup has the takeaways. This year’s bill will codify 15 of President Trump’s War Department related executive orders. One of the most important pieces of legislation that we do every year. Um, and it is uh fits in very consistently with the president’s peace through strength agenda. And then we got it aims to strip the Pentagon of programs like CRT, DEI, and climate initiatives and refocuses on merit-based promotions instead of diversity to drive admissions to servicemies. Doge cuts are included eliminating 20 billion in obsolete weapons, inefficient programs, and Pentagon bureaucracy. Enlisted service members would get a 4% pay raise. The bill would cement Trump’s deployment of troops to the border to combat illegal immigration and drugs. As for policy abroad, lawmakers aim to strengthen USIsrael military operations and ramp up defense in the Indo-acific to deter CCP aggression towards Taiwan. She has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take Taiwan by force by 2027. The CCP has conducted the largest military buildup since World War II. Countering China and Russia’s technology and weapons development is also a focus in the newest defense bill. Lawmakers this week are expected to vote on the yearly defense bill. Reporting from Washington DC, Molina Weissup, NTD News. The White House released its highly anticipated new national security strategy on Friday. From focusing on the Western Hemisphere to emphasizing deterrence over Taiwan and sending a warning to Europe, the strategy is drawing both praise and concern. To unpack it all, we spoke with Dr. Dr. Keith Nton, co-founder and principal of Silent Majority Strategies. Take a look. Thank you so much for joining us. Now, some are calling this national security strategy a radical departure, including from the one during Trump’s first term. How are you reading this document? What changes stand out to you the most? Well, I think it’s a long overdue rewriting of America’s formal strategy. Our main interests are in the western hemisphere and we do have significant interests in Asia. Uh China and the CCP are the most significant threat to American economic security. So I think that is the the correct pivot to do. I think one of the reasons for the aggressive attitude towards Europe is that the United States has been very soft on Europe for 50 years. They’ve been really freeloading off of American defense. They haven’t had to make any difficult decisions. And I think the Europeans should treat this as a wake-up call to unite and be much stronger in defense of their own interests and to be better allies. They haven’t been good allies for the last 20 years. And digging in here this time, China doesn’t top the list and said the report lays out the Western Hemisphere as you mentioned. Previously, it did that as well in 1987, 1990, and 2006. expanding on your earlier point, what do you make of this emphasis on the Western Hemisphere this time? Well, I think it’s uh intelligent because um it feeds into domestic politics and in the end, American presidents are going to be judged on what happens in this country much more than what happens in other nations. And there’s significant problems in the Western Hemisphere. where we’ve got a lot of drug trafficking, an enormous amount of this illegal activity, a lot of smuggling. These transnational gangs are often emedded by government officials like in Venezuela and local officials in Mexico. Uh that’s causing direct harm to this country. It’s causing thousands of drug deaths, tens of thousands of drug deaths every year. That’s something that should be addressed very robustly and very aggressively. I think that the president is also engaged in negotiations with with China over trade. So I think it’s smart right now to not raise up the rhetoric when we talk when we’re talking about China right now. If he can get through these negotiations, then I think that would be a positive thing. When it comes to China, the report says President Trump single-handedly reversed more than three decades of mistaken American assumptions about China. namely that by opening our markets to China, we would facilitate China’s entry into the so-called rules-based international order. This did not happen. China got rich and powerful and used its wealth and power to its considerable advantage. As for solutions, the document calls for American dominance in key technologies and defense equipment, a strong capital market, and coordination with allies with similar values. How are you reading this? What does this mean for USChina relations going forward? Well, I don’t think it would have gone back 30 years, maybe 20 years. I think that the uh permanent normal trade relations were an enormous mistake. So, this idea in the west that everyone in China was just going to be like the West, that was always a fantasy. Unfortunately, the country’s overlaid by the CCP, which is corrupted the nation and has been very aggressive. So, it’s a bit of a toxic mix. So we should have been much more cautious for the past 20 25 years and I think it is a long overdue correction and it was Trump who made the correction in his first term and Biden didn’t move off of that. He continued the tariffs against China continued a more aggressive posture not enough but at least some somewhat. So I I think that’s the correct move. Um, but it would be beneficial to build at least some type of relationship that maintains sort of a peaceful coexistence because, you know, a shooting war, a hot war over Taiwan, over trade would be very damaging to both countries. But as part of that process, the United States needs to become more independent economically and on technology. And militarily, the document calls for ongoing deterrence in the Indo Pacific to prevent war, highlighting the US and allies capacity to deter any attempt to seize Taiwan. Given that, how do you see Beijing responding to this document? Well, it’s very curious. You know, their public response uh under Xi Jinping has been sort of very prickly. Anytime there’s the slightest whiff of criticism, they really go on the attack. I mean, the the Global Times, I’m not sure there are people actually writing it. I think they just have some sort of computer program that just attacks anyone who criticizes China. Um I think that the reality is if we give enough uh defense to Taiwan, if we uh provide enough uh weaponry, if we have a strong defense posture with South Korea and Japan and Australia, that will result in China pushing, you know, moving back or being reticent to be aggressive. I would like to see the administration be more firm with the Philippines because right now China is engaged in some horribly abusive actions against the Philippines and some of the uh sovereign Philippine territory and the scarbor shells. That’s all for today’s China in Focus. I’m Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on the show or have something you’d like to see us cover, send us an email at chinainfocusentt.com. We’d love to hear from you. For the clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow. [Music]

China has set a new record, with its trade surplus topping one trillion dollars as exports surge beyond U.S. markets. Other countries are raising concerns, as leaders in Europe warn Beijing they could impose tariffs if cheap Chinese imports continue to flood European markets.

Tensions are rising in the Pacific after a Chinese jet locked its radar on Japanese fighter planes near Japan’s territory over the weekend.

SANAE TAKAICHI, Japanese prime minister: “We strongly protested to the Chinese side, and we have sternly demanded that it not recur. We will respond calmly and resolutely.”

Japan is warning Australia to stay vigilant, as China ramps up its military activity across the Pacific. Retired Marine Colonel Grant Newsham highlights why the first island chain is critical to regional defense: “If you break the chain, you take Taiwan, then you can easily push the Chinese military into the central Pacific. You swing up to the north, you isolate Japan. Swing down to the south and you isolate Australia. You make it very hard for the Americans to operate.”

Top U.S. and Australian officials are sitting down in Washington, with China and Indo-Pacific security topping the agenda.

00:00 Intro
01:29 China Hits $1T Trade Surplus Driven by Non-U.S. Markets
02:38 Macron Warns EU May Act on China’s Growing Trade Gap
03:57 Japan Disputes China’s Claims Over Fighter Jet Incident
05:22 Japan, Australia Discuss China Radar-Lock, Taiwan Issue
07:39 China Taking Taiwan Would Hurt U.S. Interests Globally
10:07Taiwan Is an “Existential Threat” for Beijing: Newsham
11:19 How Should U.S. Allies Push Back on Beijing?
13:08 Rubio, Hegseth Welcome Australian Counterparts
15:33 Lawmakers Advance Bill to Counter China, Secure

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