April 28:
A missing code-breaker from the Polish Army, Stefan Zielonka, who disappeared last April is either dead in Warsaw, a victim of Russian assassins, as the Warsaw Business Journal reports, or alive and well in China, a recruit of the Chinese clandestine services. Polskie Radio reports that Zielonka is near Shanghai, where Chinese intelligence has organized a "new life" for him and retained his services as a signals expert in covert communications.
April 29:
More than 6,500 Taiwanese soldiers, including elite special forces, took part in the island's biggest military training drills in over a year, simulating a D-Day type PLA attack on the island. About 4,900 troops, assisted by F-16 fighter jets and Super Cobra attack helicopters, deployed near Chialutang, a coastal village in southern Taiwan, as they defended the beaches against a mock invasion. Several miles inland, 1,200 infantrymen simulated defense against PLA paratroopers in support of the beach invasion. Meanwhile, in Huko township in the north of the island, 400 soldiers took part in a drill testing the army's ability to airlift special forces over distances. Taiwan last held similar military maneuvers in December 2008 and only computerized war games were held last year, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reports.
Anatoliy Perminov, chief of Russia’s Space Agency Roskosmos, has said Russia and China should cooperate in space. "We want to cooperate with China because China is a leading space power, including in human space flights program," Perminov said. "China, too, has expressed interest in joining the Russian project to create a satellite constellation Arktika to monitor the Arctic region." Russian spacecraft could ferry Chinese astronauts to the International Space Station after the space shuttle program is closed, Perminov said in comments carried by Russia’s Interfax-AVN news agency.
April 30:
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has recently deployed five more brigades (some 5,000 troops) along its southwestern border with Myanmar bringing the total deployment in areas bordering rebel United Wa State Army strongholds to around 20,000 troops. Tensions remain high between the Myanmar government forces and Wa since 37,000 Kokang people took refuge on Chinese soil last August when government troops sacked the region. China has also deployed air defense units along the boarder, the Irrawaddy website reports.
[Editor’s Note: As former guerrillas of the Communist Party of Burma, the ethnic Han armies of the Wa and the Kokang were trained by and have had long alliances with the PLA. During Burma’s communist insurgency some Chinese troops joined their fight against the junta.]
May 1:
While in New Delhi Japan’s Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa met with his Indian counterpart Shri Antony and both sides agreed to keep pressing China to disclose its defense budget. At the meeting both Kitazawa and Antony reaffirmed the strengthening of India-Japan bilateral defense cooperation, including annual defense minister exchanges, and agreed to hold joint naval exercises by 2011. Also, at the meeting Kitazawa declared that in response to PLA Navy activities, Japan will work towards deploying more forces in its southwestern islands, the Kyodo News Agency reports.
May 2:
Chinese President Hu Jintao has given 256 military trucks and 50,000 military uniforms worth 100 million yuan ($14 million) to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. The pledge was made during Hu’s meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen during his visit to China. Chinese aid was a replacement for military aid the U.S. had pledged but later suspended, a Cambodian official said in comments carried by the Press Trust of India. The United States had offered 200 military vehicles to Cambodia under its Excess Defense Articles program. But in early April, Washington suspended the shipment to protest the Cambodian government's deportation of 20 Uighur refugees to China.
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