US Air Force to reorganize to meet China
Former Chinese ambassador warns of new 'Cold War' mentality and proxy fight over Taiwan.
The United States Air Force is undertaking a sweeping reorganization to prepare for potential conflicts with Russia and China, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced at an Air & Space Forces Association conference on Monday.
“We have the most pacing challenge we have ever faced – China, China, China. Ladies and gentlemen, we are out of time, we are out of time, we are out of time,” Kendall told an annual Air Force symposium in Denver, Colorado.
“We can no longer regard conflict as a distant possibility or a future problem that we might have to confront. The risk of conflict is here now, and that risk will increase with time,” Kendall said.
“We need fully capable units with all the assets they need to fight China or possibly Russia on short or no notice,” Kendall said. “We need units fully ready to deploy or conduct operations in place also on short or no, notice.”
All told, a total of 24 organizational changes are expected across the Air Force, Space Force and its civilian leadership, Kendall and other senior Air Force officials said in Denver.
Notably, the Air Force is planning large-scale exercises to simulate conditions of a fight with a peer adversary in the Indo-Pacific sometime in FY 2025, Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin told the conference according to Breaking Defense.
Former China envoy warns of Taiwan ‘proxy war’
Cui Tiankai, China’s former ambassador to the US, speaking at an Asia Society conference in Washington, DC, warned against the US arming Taiwan and the emerging “Cold War” mentality in the Asia Pacific. “Someone” may be laying a “trap” with a proxy conflict involving “Chinese killing Chinese,” Cui said.
“Basically, the election in Taiwan was a local election in China” said Cui, who served as US ambassador from 2013 to 2021 and is now retired.
Taiwan held national elections on January 13, electing ruling Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Lai Ching-te to a four-year term beginning May 20. Beijing had opposed Lai’s candidacy. Lai and the DPP advocate for Taiwan’s continued independence from China.
“People are talking about how China will achieve its national reunification. We will have, we will achieve reunification one way or another,” Cui said at the Asia Society event.
“But we certainly want to do that in a way that will best serve the national interest of the entire Chinese nation, including people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. We will certainly do it in a way that will serve the larger interests of regional stability and peace,” Cui said.
“We certainly don't want to see a situation where Chinese are killing Chinese. That's not our way of doing things. We have a long history of civilization. We have the Asian wisdom. We have the Chinese ways of doing things.”
“We will not fall into the trap somebody may be preparing for us that they will supply military assistance. They will supply weapons for a proxy war and Chinese will be killing Chinese. We will not fall into that trap,” he said.
Prior to the voting, Chinese officials in Beijing had framed Taiwan’s election as a choice between war and peace. China has staged two major war games around Taiwan in the past year and half and routinely tests Taiwan’s air defense zone. President Xi Jinping has set the year 2027 as a timeline for China’s military to be able to take Taiwan by force.
In an apparent escalation at the beginning of the Lunar New Year, China released eight airborne missiles to disrupt the Taiwan Strait, and two other aircraft invaded Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zones, according to a report in Taiwan news outlet United Daily News.
“China's intention, China's goal, I think is very clear and very simple,” Cui said in Washington. “Our goal is China's modernization. It's not anything about global dominance, or even regional hegemony. It's everything about how to make ourselves better, to bring better life to our own people. Not anybody else's expense. But rather, as China grows, we'll make a greater contribution to the region, to the world. With the goal of setting up a community of nations with a shared future. It's as simple as that.”
Latham & Watkins segregates HK lawyers
Global law firm Latham & Watkins is cutting off automatic access to its international databases for its Hong Kong-based lawyers, according to a report in the Financial Times citing unnamed persons
The law firm’s policy cuts off the firm’s 78 lawyers in Hong Kong from default access to its US, European, Middle East and Asia databases.
The firm, which employs more than 3,500 lawyers in 14 countries, is segregating data access for its Hong Kong office from other Asian offices, including Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo, the Times reported.
Instead, Latham will create a distinct ‘Greater China’ database shared with the Beijing office, reflecting Beijing’s closer regulatory control of Hong Kong. The move follows China’s adoption of new national security and espionage laws that make it impossible for professional service firms to protect client data from government inquiry.
Major global law firms have been retreating from China in recent years following a decades-long rush to build presence there. Last year, Latham closed its Shanghai office. The global legal network Dentons Group trimmed ties with its Chinese affiliate Dacheng Law Office. Akin Gump, Proskauer Rose, and Ropes & Gray, among other firms, recently downsized operations in China.
US to limit China’s access to data
The Biden administration is preparing to issue an executive order aimed at preventing China from acquiring troves of Americans’ sensitive personal data, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources.
The order is aimed at heading off access to bulk sensitive data through now-legal transactions involving data brokers, third-party vendor agreements, employment agreements and investment agreements, according to a draft obtained by Bloomberg.
The effort focuses on preventing China from accessing swaths of sensitive data about Americans, including information on their finances, genetic makeup, voice patterns and even keyboard usage habits, according to the report.
The forthcoming presidential order will direct the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to issue new restrictions on transactions involving data that could threaten national security if obtained by “countries of concern,” Bloomberg said.
— William Roberts