China Putting Military Base in UAE

Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, left, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attend a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Monday, July 22, 2019.  Andy Wong-Pool/Getty Images

• China has resumed the construction of a military base in the UAE, leaker papers show.
• Plans for a Chinese base had earlier been halted amid US concerns.
• China is riling the US by forming ties with its traditional allies in the region.

China resumed construction of a military base in the United Arab Emirates, a move likely to alarm US officials and increase concerns that another US ally in the Middle East is drawing closer to China.

According to leaked US intelligence documents obtained by The Washington Post, construction has resumed at a Chinese military base just outside Abu Dhabi.

Plans for a base were halted in 2021 after the US voiced its objections. But The Post's documents indicate that the plans now appear to be going ahead.

According to the report, US intelligence is monitoring Chinese activity at the base and at other locations in the oil-rich UAE amid concerns that it is drawing closer to Beijing. The presence of Chinese officials at several sensitive military sites have alarmed US intelligence, the report says.  READ MORE...

American Firms WARNED

Excerp from South China Morning Poas...   www.scmp.com

China

US intelligence warns American firms to protect 5 key technologies from China

• Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, bioscience, semiconductors, and autonomous systems are five critical tech areas, says US intelligence
• American firms and researchers need to pay more attention to protect research against threats from nation-states acquiring American know-how, officials add

A robotic shark is seen at a cloud computing and artificial intelligence conference, in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on October 19. Photo: AFP

US intelligence officials issued a warning to American technology firms against working with China in five crucial areas.

Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, bioscience, semiconductors, and autonomous systems are sectors “where the stakes are potentially greatest for US economic and national security”, the National Counterintelligence and Security Centre (NCSC) said in a new paper.