China has just passed an inflection point that could have dire global ramifications, warned Gordon Chang, author and China expert, at AFA’s Pacific Air & Space Symposium in Los Angeles. The nation’s economic growth is coming to an end, and the country is mired in debt and may be slipping backward into a new “cultural revolution,” he told the symposium audience in his Nov. 21 speech. These internal developments may drive the Chinese government to engage in an increasingly belligerent and irrational foreign policy, said Chang. “We have to be concerned that Beijing, not out of strength, but out of weakness, will lash out and shake the world,” he said. Already, China is using rough tactics in border disputes with neighbors like India, Japan, and the Philippines, he said. This may indicate that China is no longer content with being a status quo power, said Chang. He urged the United States to make clear its resolve to defend its Asia-Pacific allies; otherwise, China’s neighbors may decide to resist China’s aggression with force, he said.
Pentagon Task Force, FAA to Test Counter-Drone Laser
March 7, 2026
The Pentagon’s counter-drone task force announced it would conduct a high-energy laser test with the Federal Aviation Administration less than a month after the use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border prompted the FAA to shut down the airspace over El Paso, Texas.