Follow us on social

Politico’s defense industry funded newsletter hypes banal news about China's military

Politico’s defense industry funded newsletter hypes banal news about China's military

Beijing built a base for some of their nuclear weapons we already knew about and apparently that’s a big scoop.

Reporting | Media

Politico’s foreign policy newsletter National Security Daily on Monday published what appeared to be somewhat of a scoop: “Suspected new Chinese missile garrison found by commercial satellite,” the headline blared. 

NatSec Daily had apparently combed through the Pentagon’s new report on China’s military and found "the existence of a new People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) bomber brigade stationed near the city of Xiangyang,” noting that it didn’t appear in last year’s report. 

The newsletter then noted that an analysis by Janes, an open source intelligence firm, of commercially available satellite imagery taken on October 25 indeed shows that a new missile garrison was built in the area between 2019 and 2021. And according to the author of that report, the “unit assigned to the Xiangyang garrison is unknown, but the garrison may be intended to house 664 Brigade. 664 Brigade is a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile unit equipped with the DF-31AG and previously thought to be garrisoned at Yiyang.” 

NatSec Daily then points to a report from the Federation of American Scientists from last December which said that the 664 Brigade had been stationed nearby. 

But … that was it. 

Politico’s big scoop essentially boiled down to: China built a base for a nuclear weapons brigade that we already knew about. 

That may be interesting to a small group of people who follow the Chinese military’s comings and goings fairly closely. But why is such banal information being hyped as big news in mainstream media outlet?

NatSec Daily then tried to put the information about this new base in some kind of wider anti-American context, saying the “revelation” adds to news of “recently captured pictures of a fake U.S. aircraft carrier in the northwestern desert of China, which might be used by Beijing’s forces to practice battling the United States.”

It probably is being used by Beijing’s forces to practice battling the United States but how these two things are related at all is unclear. 

But this sort of national security threat-inflation isn’t new for Politico. This summer, the outlet spent about a week following around some Iranian oil tankers — which Politico referred to as “warships” — that may or may not have been heading to Venezuela, making it seem like they were part of some grand naval armada coming to the Western Hemisphere to challenge American regional hegemony. (They actually ended up landing on the west coast of Africa.)

Oddly enough though, there actually is potentially alarming news about recent developments from the Chinese military — but that’s about recently discovered missile silos that are part of what experts believe is a nuclear modernization plan, not some new base to house a nuclear brigade that we already knew about. 

FAS called it a “worrisome development” but the group didn’t hype the threat. Instead, FAS said that it’s “important to exercise caution” and the news “may ironically also create new opportunities for arms control discussions and potential agreements.”

Perhaps the FAS report didn’t hype these revelations because, unlike Politico, it isn’t funded by the defense industry. Indeed, NatSecDaily is brought to you by Lockheed Martin. And only those who build the bombs meant to be aimed at the Chinese could be happy with a headline like this: 

Screen-shot-2021-11-09-at-4.17.40-pm-1024x521


Photos: OleksandrShnuryk and Sharaf Maksumov via shutterstock.com|
Reporting | Media
 Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Sudan
Top image credit: Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan gestures to soldiers inside the presidential palace after the Sudanese army said it had taken control of the building, in the capital Khartoum, Sudan March 26, 2025. Sudan Transitional Sovereignty Council/Handout via REUTERS

Saudi Arabia chooses sides in Sudan's civil war

Africa

In the final days of Ramadan, before Mecca's Grand Mosque, Sudan's de facto president and army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan knelt in prayer beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Al-Burhan had arrived in the kingdom just two days after his troops dealt a significant blow to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), recapturing the capital Khartoum after two years of civil war. Missing from the frame was the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Gulf power that has backed al-Burhan’s rivals in Sudan’s civil war with arms, mercenaries, and political cover.

The scene captured the essence of a deepening rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE — once allies in reshaping the Arab world, now architects of competing visions for Sudan and the region.

For two years, Sudan has been enveloped in chaos. The conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed forces (SAF) and the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo "Hemedti," has inflicted immense suffering: an estimated 150,000 killed, allegations of mass atrocities staining both sides but particularly the RSF in Darfur, 12 million displaced, and over half the population facing acute food insecurity.

keep readingShow less
Donald Trump Massad Boulos
Top image credit: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump is joined by Massad Boulos, who was recently named as a 'senior advisor to the President on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs,' during a campaign stop at the Great Commoner restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., on November 1, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Trump tasks first time envoy with the most complex Africa conflict

Africa

As the war between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and allied militias against the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group continues, the Trump administration is reportedly tapping Massad Boulos as the State Department’s special envoy to the African Great Lakes region.

In this capacity, Boulos will be responsible for leading the American diplomatic effort to bring long-desired stability to the region and to end a conflict that has been raging in the eastern DRC for decades.

keep readingShow less
Sens. Paul and Merkley to Trump: Are we 'stumbling' into another war?
Top photo credit: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) (Gage Skidmore /Creative Commons) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) )( USDA photo by Preston Keres)

Sens. Paul and Merkley to Trump: Are we 'stumbling' into another war?

QiOSK

Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) have co-written a letter to the White House, demanding to know the administration’s strategy behind the now-18 days of airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

The letter calls into question the supposed intent of these strikes “to establish deterrence,” acknowledging that neither the Biden administration’s strikes in October 2023, nor the years-long bombing campaign by Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2020, were successful in debilitating the military organization's military capabilities.

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.