Dead Drop: November 24

ALBM ROCK: The South China Morning Post is out with a piece on China’s new JL-1 hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) — that Beijing apparently hopes will round out its nuclear triad. The headline touts how the JL-1 “beats U.S. rivals,” but the fine print quietly notes a snag: the missile can only be launched by the H-6N bomber, a Cold War antique based on the Soviet Badger bomber which went into service in 1954. The range of the JL-1 (whose name translates to “Shocking Thunder-1”) launched from an H-6N means (according to the SCMP citing a Chinese military magazine) that it could pose a nuclear threat to Alaska and “potentially” the rest of the U.S. It is interesting that this narrative is coming via the SCMP, sometimes described by the snarkiest of critics as Beijing’s preferred outlet for “strategic leaks.” When China wants to brag about new toys, this is often where the show-and-tell begins. The JL-1 first appeared at China’s military parade in September marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

NEED NOT APPLY – Last week, we mentioned the Dead Drop told you that MI-5 was warning Members of Parliament and other senior UK officials that China’s intelligence service has been soliciting “non-public and insider insights” by using women who were portraying themselves as headhunters on LinkedIn (something the U.S. has been warning about for years). After a few days, the Chinese embassy in the UK responded saying that such talk was “malicious slander” which they “strongly condemned. “ Still, we’re filing this under the “need not apply” category.