May 27, 2021(EIRNS) — Imagery published by a Chinese popular science magazine called Modern Weaponry, has set off speculation in Western news media that China may have, for the first time, revealed details of its H-20 stealth bomber, an aircraft that has been under development for some years but about which very little is known. Global Times called the Western media speculation about the bomber’s capabilities “fake news,” and asserted that the Chinese military would never reveal new capabilities through such a publication.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, in a commentary published in RT, argues that the significance of the H-20 is not the new capabilities that it might represent. Indeed, Ritter argues that China can already threaten US bases in the Second Island Chain, at which the pundits speculate that the new bomber is aimed, with its array of ballistic missiles, and with greater assurance of destruction. The importance of the H-20, Ritter states, is what it means in terms of the rate of China’s military technological progress. “As China prepares to field its new strategic bomber, the age of the US qualitative edge in military equipment comes to an end,” Ritter writes at the outset. “China has closed the technological gap with the US and is preparing to bound ahead.”
