The Chinese government issued a white paper Thursday that was highly critical of efforts to build a regional missile defense system in Asia and voiced opposition to US efforts to provide Taiwan such capability. The paper maintained that development and deployment of missile defense systems are “by no means an effective way to solve the problem” of ballistic missile proliferation. Such a move would, stated the paper, “produce [a] negative impact on global strategic stability” and, further, would “erode trust among big powers.” China wants more “transparency” in the missile defense programs of “relevant countries”—read that as the US and Japan.
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.