China's Predator Drone Ripoff Crashes and Explodes [China]

Shocker! In China's rush to be a 21st century military power, it might be possible some engineering's been a little... rushed. That seems to be the case for this Chinese "Pterodactyl" UAV—pretty much just a bootleg Predator. Kaboom.

For comparison, here's a side by side of the two bulb-nosed robo-planes.

The copycat drone went down in a flaming wreck around the Chinese village of Huining, Chinese Defence Mashup reports, and was eagerly photographed by locals before the government locked the area down. Why? It's rather embarrassing when your drones crash for no apparent reason on your own turf, that's why. At least our drones have the decency to be spectacularly shot out of the sky or shit the bed in the line of fire. [China Defence Mashup via Flight Global]

Predator photo by Gary Williams/Getty, Pterodactyl model photo by Greg Waldron

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This Chinese Riot APC Looks More Comfortable than Your Dorm Room [China]

China's got a new beastly toy to mow down the massses: the YLGA01 8x8 SWAT APC. It's rugged, armored, and scary looking—exactly what you want from an APC. But on the inside? Pure comfort!

Well, it still looks like the inside of an APC, but dig this: full central air, wall to wall carpeting, and hot and cold water! And those seats look pretty plush! This APC would cost about $900 a month to rent in Manhattan. But can your cramped apartment oppress civilians? No.

By comparison, here's the interior of an Australian APC. No thanks! We need the cast of a Bravo reality show to make that thing over. [China Defense Blog]

Bottom photo by Mike Coghlan

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China Slips and Reveals Its Own Cyberattacks on State TV [Video]

In a direct contradiction to China's official line about their never attack nations or groups online, Chinese state television CCTV briefly displayed footage showing their military students training for cyberattacks. Just enough to get then in trouble. Oops!

China's involvement in cyberwarfare has an obviously sordid history, but their stance on the subject even in the face of attacks on Google, the Pentagon, and the entire internet at large has always been the same; "It wasn't us." But this is the first time they've outed themselves, if unintentionally, with their own material.

Experts agree that the footage shown in CCTV-7's July broadcast is likely a decade old, judging from the outmoded interfaces shown. But the WSJ reports that it's enough to show intent. Displayed are prompts directing DDOS attacks against Minghui.org, a US-based Falun Gong site. Which jibes with previous reports on attacks on Falun Gong websites from a decade ago. Also:

The IP address given for the selected website-which is currently unavailable in China but accessible in the U.S.-is 138.26.72.17 and is registered to the University of Alabama in Birmingham, according to at least two websites that trace IP addresses.

Taken together, this shouldn't be surprising. Now it's just the waiting for China to own up to it. [WSJ, NTD]

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Wikileaks Releases Thousands More Cables Covering China, Taiwan and Libya [Wikileaks]

Wikileaks just dropped thousands more embassy cables today. These centered around China, Taiwan, and Libya.

The first batch to drop were 2170 cables about Taiwan. Some 3004 cables from China followed quickly behind. And perhaps most interestingly, given the news of the day, they closed out with 349 cables from Libya. While we haven't had a chance to go through these yet, we're betting the Libya timing isn't coincidental.

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