Taiwan’s Navy

Interesting post on the Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief

An increasingly assertive China is behaving more in line with past Chinese Empires rather than reflect the more humble origins of the Communist Party. India being the other big, rising power in Asia, there is very clear scope for conflict of varying degrees between the two countries. China has effectively propped Pakistan as a major headache on India’s western flank. I wonder if other countries may serve to rein in/distract the Dragon.

Starting with Taiwan. I’d look to study how the two Chinas match up in a subsequent post.

Old Phones save lives

Your old phone could make a big difference to a health worker in Africa.

IntraHealth International, a public health nonprofit, is launching a partnership with Hope Phones and FrontlineSMS:Medic to provide mobile phones to African health workers who offer maternal and child health services, including obstetric consultations, safe deliveries, family planning, and malaria and HIV prevention and treatment.

Read the full article here

Armoured Trains Rumble Once More

From the Jamestown Foundation:

“A weapon thought by many to belong to military museums is making a return to active anti-insurgency operations in the North Caucasus: the armored train. First used for such purposes in the American Civil War, armored trains and the tactics associated with their use were most fully developed in the vast expanses of Russia, where they were used in large numbers in World War One, the Red-White Civil War of 1917-22 (including extensive operations in the Caucasus), the Second World War and the Sino-Soviet border conflict of the 1960’s. More recently, Russian armored trains were deployed to secure railway lines against Azeri nationalists during the 1990 Soviet military intervention in Baku. Now Russia’s defense ministry has announced the return of armored trains for use against Islamist insurgents in the North Caucasus”

Click here for full article.