Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News on Belarus, CCP, Russia, U.S.
News (1)
Belarusian President visits Beijing. Experts say he may help the CCP evade sanctions on aiding Russia
Reporter : Li Zhaoxi / Editor : Lin Qing / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/02/27/a103658324.html / Image : Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. (Maxim Shipenkov/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
At a time when the United States is concerned that Beijing may consider providing lethal weapons support to Russia and assisting Moscow in the war in Ukraine, on Tuesday (28 February 28), the Chinese Communist Party will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin's ally, Belarusian President Lukashenko, andthis move has aroused the attention of the outside world.
According to a statement issued by the CCP Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 25th, Alexander Lukashenko came to visit at the invitation of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. His visit lasts for three days.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have been running high over U.S. concerns that China could help arm Putin's military. U.S. President Joe Biden said he did not expect CCP China to provide significant arms aid to Russia, but warned that any such action would draw a U.S. response.
According to a CNN report on the 24th, sources familiar with the intelligence said that CCP officials have not yet made a final decision on providing lethal assistance, but are discussing the price and scope of supply of attack drones and ammunition with Russian officials.
Senior U.S. officials say recent intelligence suggests CCP China is leaning toward providing the equipment to Russia under bilateral arms sales agreements, rather than as security assistance.
According to U.S. intelligence assessments, CCP is seriously considering sending arms to Russia as Western sanctions continue to put pressure on the Russian Defense Industrial Base (DIB).
Russian and CCP officials also reportedly hatched plans to send drones to Russia using forged shipping documents to avoid international sanctions.
Analysts at the US think tank Study of War believe that CCP may be trying to use the agreement with Belarus to cover up its arms supply to Russia in order to circumvent Western sanctions.
Lukashenko announced plans to visit CCP China from 28 February to 2 March 2023 and meet with Xi Jinping. The two sides may sign a series of agreements on trade, investment, large-scale joint projects and other matters.
The South China Morning Post reported last week that CCP China would not arm Russia in the Ukraine war but did not rule out a third party. Analysts say Beijing wants to maintain economic ties with the West but will not abandon its relationship with Moscow either.
Zhu Feng, a professor of international affairs at Nanjing University, said Beijing was under increasing pressure from Moscow to seek help as more Western weapons flowed into Ukraine.
Zhu Feng said that it is "very unlikely" that CCP will supply weapons to Russia but the strategic relationship between the two authoritarian countries may be raised to a higher level but he added that Beijing could not prevent the possibility of Moscow obtaining Chinese weapons and equipment from third parties.
Lukashenko may be becoming a bridge between China and Russia, Lukashenko watchers and former diplomats told The Daily Beast. Lukashenko has long tried to draw a bridge between Putin and the West and maintain a delicate balance but over the past few weeks, Lukashenko's ability to maintain that balance seems to have completely disappeared.
"He's kind of stuck. He can't say no to Putin right now," said Scott Rauland, former chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Belarus.
Earlier this month, Lukashenko announced that he was willing to allow Putin to use Belarusian territory as a staging area for an attack on southern Ukraine. "I am ready to offer territory again," he told reporters.
News (2) to (4) / Reporter : Li Yan / Editor : Li Tongde / https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/2/27/n13939375.htm
News (2)
Belarusian partisans: Russian reconnaissance plane was blown up near Minsk
Image : On 24 June 2020, Moscow, Russia, during the Victory Day military parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of the victory of World War II, the "Bumblebee" A-50 early warning aircraft (Beriev A-50) flew over Red Square. (Evgeny Biyatov / Host Photo Agency via Getty Images)
On Sunday (26 February 2023), a Russian Bumblebee A-50 (Beriev A-50) reconnaissance plane was reported to be in the Belarusian capital. An airport near Minsk was destroyed by a drone. Belarusian anti-government activists say they are responsible.
Aliaksandr Azarov, leader of the Belarusian anti-government organization BYPOL, said on the organization's Telegram channel, "The participants in (this) operation are Belarusians." He was also quoted by the Belsat news channel.
"They (operation participants) are safe now, abroad," Azarov said.
The Epoch Times was unable to independently verify reports of the attack. Neither Russia nor Belarus has officially confirmed this.
Franak Viacorka, an adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, tweeted that this attack is the first time since early 2022 and the most successful bust of all time.
"Partisans ... confirmed a successful special operation at the Machulishchy airfield near Minsk that destroyed a rare Russian aircraft," Vyakorka said on Twitter.
"This is the most successful clamping operation since the beginning of 2022." He added that the two Belarusians who carried out the operation used drones, adding that they had safely left the country.
Vyakorka said the destroyed Russian plane was worth 330 million Euros. According to news outlets close to the opposition, it was a Bumblebee A-50 surveillance plane.
The plane's front and center sections, as well as its radar antenna, were destroyed during the attack on the Macchulic Air Force Base near Minsk, BYPOL reported.
The Bumblebee A-50, whose NATO reporting name is Mainstay, is a Russian airborne early warning aircraft with air command and control capabilities capable of simultaneously tracking up to 60 targets.
News (3)
The role of Belarus in the Russia-Ukraine war
Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine a year ago, there have been several attacks in Belarus and Russian regions bordering Ukraine, particularly on railway systems, Reuters reported.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is not directly involved in the war Russia began against Ukraine a year ago, has allowed Russian troops into his territory as a transit at the start of the war.
Moscow called the war a special military operation in Ukraine to defend Russia, which Kiev and its Western allies called an unprovoked aggression.
Belarus and Russia have established a joint military unit in Belarus and have held numerous exercises. Some Russian warplanes and airborne early warning and control aircraft have been deployed to Belarus.
"I am proud of all Belarusians who continue to resist Russia's mixed occupation of Belarus and fight for the freedom of Ukraine," Tikhanoskaya tweeted in response to the news.
The Belarusian human rights group Vyasna said on Monday that a woman was detained in Macchulic and her whereabouts and reasons for her detention are unknown.
News (4)
The latest battle updates
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Monday (27 February 2023) that Russian forces are focusing on offensive operations in eastern Ukraine.
The ministry said Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks in Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk in the past 24 hours. 81 attacks around Shakhtarsk, adding that "the threat of Russian missile attacks remains high throughout Ukraine".
"The enemy is trying to destroy our country's critical infrastructure and continues to strike and shell civilian installations and houses," the General Staff said. "The enemy is constantly conducting aerial reconnaissance to adjust its strike operations."
The General Staff said Russia twice attacked civilian infrastructure with the Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicle. Both drones were shot down.
Ukrainian authorities said earlier that according to preliminary estimates, 11 of the 14 Shah drones launched by Russia had been shot down, with most destroyed near the capital.
At least two people were killed and four others were injured when a Russian drone struck the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi, 200 miles from Kiev, on Monday, local officials said.
The Russian army also carried out more than 50 attacks with multiple rocket systems targeting civilian infrastructure in the Donetsk and Kherson regions in the south of the country, causing " Civilians were killed and injured, civilian buildings were destroyed, civilian infrastructure was damaged."
News (5)
CIA chief: Xi Jinping and his senior officials have doubts about the ability to attack Taiwan
Editor : Wen Hui / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/02/27/a103658174.html / Image : CIA Director William Burns testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington, DC, 10 March 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Burns revealed that Xi Jinping originally hoped to be ready to attack Taiwan by 2027, but Russia’s poor performance in invading Ukraine in the past year presents a very difficult decision for CCP to make. That may have exacerbated doubts about a successful invasion of Taiwan by Xi Jinping and his top military brass.
On 26 February, local time, in an interview broadcast on the CBS program "Face the Nation", William Burns disclosed the above information.
"I think our judgment, at least, is that today Xi Jinping and his military leadership have doubts about whether the invasion (Taiwan) can be done; what they saw with Putin in Ukraine probably exacerbated some of that," Burns said with doubt."
Burns said that, as has been made public, Xi Jinping has instructed the military to prepare to "invade" Taiwan by 2027, or even earlier, but this goal is not set in stone.
"I think, at least our judgment is that Xi and his military leadership are currently skeptical that they will be able to pull off the invasion, and when they look at Putin's experience in Ukraine, that probably reinforces some of those doubts as well," he said. .”
Burns believes that since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the aid of the United States and Europe to Ukraine has shown the solidarity of the West, which may also be considered by the Chinese Communist Party.
He said, "I don't think there is a foreign leader who has observed Putin's experience in Ukraine, the evolution of the war more carefully than Xi Jinping."
Burns said that Xi Jinping was disturbed by the situation of the Russia-Ukraine war. "He (Xi Jinping) was surprised by Russia's very poor military performance. I think he was also surprised by the level of solidarity and support for Ukraine in the West."
Burns believes that the CCP's ambition to attack Taiwan by force should not be underestimated. He said that the potential risk of the Chinese Communist Party using force may further increase in this decade and beyond. Therefore, the United States needs to maintain "very, very careful attention."
He stressed that even if a military conflict is not inevitable, the US "takes Xi Jinping's ambitions for eventual control of Taiwan very seriously".
Burns also said that there is reliable information that the CCP is considering providing Russia with "lethal" weapons, but there is no evidence that China has made a decision or started actual transportation.
He emphasized that if Beijing supports Russia, it will be a very unwise and risky gamble, and Washington will definitely stop it. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have also made it clear to China the consequence of supporting Russia as a result.
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