The Massachusetts Air National Guard member who was detained last week, according to The Washington Post, allegedly shared a wealth of pictures of sensitive documents on the Discord chat app. This is how the newspaper learned about the program’s evaluation.
The Chinese military may soon use a high-altitude espionage drone that travels at least three times the speed of sound, according to a secret U.S. military assessment, the Washington Post reported late on Tuesday.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency provided a classified document that was cited in the publication.
According to its release, the document includes satellite images dated Aug. 9 that depict two WZ-8 rocket-propelled surveillance drones at an air base in eastern China, roughly 350 miles (560 km) inland from Shanghai. Reuters was unable to independently corroborate or verify this information.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is the branch of the Chinese military in charge of enforcing Chinese sovereignty claims over Taiwan, had “almost certainly” developed its first unmanned aerial vehicle unit at the base, according to the U.S. assessment, the newspaper reported.
The embarrassing leak
A 21-year-old Air National Guard member named Jack Douglas Teixeira was taken into custody by the FBI on Thursday in connection with the damaging online disclosures of sensitive secrets involving the United States and its allies.
Washington was on edge when the leaks first became widely known earlier this month due to the potential harm they may have done. The incident embarrassed the United States by exposing its surveillance of allies and alleged military inadequacies in Ukraine.
Ever since more than 700,000 documents, videos, and diplomatic cables first emerged on the WikiLeaks website in 2010, the released documents were considered to be the most significant US security breach. According to the Pentagon, the leak was a “deliberate, criminal act.”
According to a criminal complaint made public on Friday, Teixeira is accused of breaching the Espionage Act twice: once for illegally copying and disseminating sensitive defence information and again for illegally removing that information to an unapproved place.
China’s plans exposed
Other papers found in the cache go into detail about various revelations regarding Chinese espionage and military modernization, such as intelligence that showed the existence of additional Chinese spy balloons and a conclusion that Taiwan is not well-prepared to stop early Chinese air force dominance during an invasion.
According to The Washington Post, drones might help China with real-time mapping that could benefit planning or allow for high-speed missile attacks in a future conflict.
The WZ-8 drones were unveiled in 2019 to coincide with the People’s Republic of China’s 70th founding anniversary, but few military analysts thought they were completely operational at the time, according to The Washington Post. The documents that the website reportedly obtained detailed the drone’s flight patterns as well as the bomber plane that was used to launch the contraption.
China vs Taiwan
This most recent disclosure of the development comes as Chinese military hostility against Taiwan has increased, raising fears of a Chinese invasion of the self-governing island democracy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping wants the PLA to be able to annex Taiwan by 2027, according to CIA Director William J. Burns, though he cautioned that this does not necessarily mean Xi will authorise an attack at that time.
Beijing was concerned by the recent meeting between U.S. House Representative Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Taiwan is the most significant and delicate subject in China’s relations with the United States, according to Beijing, which believes democratically ruled Taiwan as one of its provinces. Beijing’s claims of sovereignty are denied by Taiwan’s government.
