CHINA CHALLENGES THE NATION STATE SYSTEM IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

D-DAY PHOTOS: First comes a black and white from D-Day. An LCVP approaches Omaha Beach. In this second photo current U.S. Army Rangers scale the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in a ceremony commemorating the attack.

RELATED: Rangers lead the way to Pointe du Hoc.

THE PERILS OF PROXY WAR: The StrategyTalk podcast discusses Iranian proxy warfare and the downside Tehran now confronts. While you’re at it, subscribe to StrategyTalk.

RELATED: Iran’s proxy armies become a regime liability.

LOADING PARATROOPERS: 173rd Airborne Brigade paratroopers prepare to board a USAF C-130 Hercules at Villafranca Air Base, Italy.

JACK THE SIGNAL: Since 2015 Russia has been using eastern Ukraine and Syria to test new electronic Warfare equipment and operational techniques for hacking and jamming. Targets include American unmanned aerial vehicles (drones like Global Hawk) and satellite feeds. Read the whole thing.

30 YEARS LATER TIANANMEN SQUARE STILL HAUNTS CHINA’S COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP: And well it should. On June 4, 1989, the PLA slaughtered over 2,000 peaceful protestors. Now Beijing forbids discussing the massacre and seeks to erase it from history.

The government has tried to erase photo evidence of the massacre, or at least prevent mainland China’s people from seeing images on the internet. Arguably the most iconic photo was snapped June 5, the day after the slaughter: In Tiananmen Square, a lone Chinese man stands before a PLA main battle tank. The man carries two shopping bags. There is video of the incident. After the tank stopped, the courageous fellow climbed aboard and spoke with the soldiers. He was eventually dragged into the crowd, and … then he disappeared. The government still claims it has never found the man and doesn’t know his name. Realists believe he is in a secret jail or an unmarked grave.

My latest Creators Syndicate column.

RELATED: Chapter 3, Cocktails from Hell.

UPDATE: Link fixed.

RAPTOR OVER ALASKA: An F-22 flies over Alaska during Exercise Northern Edge.

30 YEARS LATER THE TIANANMEN TIGER STILL STALKS COMMUNIST CHINA’S DRAGON: Chinese Communist propagandists “utterly avoid mentioning the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre of Chinese citizens by the People’s Liberation Army, to the point of forbidding its discussion and attempting to erase the event from history.”

RELATED: Chapter 3, Cocktails from Hell.

FIRE ON THE BALTIC: A USMC Abrams tank participates in a live fire exercise on a Baltic beach.

SWIFT AND THE TIMES: Scott Johnson at Powerline revisits one of the New York Times’ greatest reporting travesties, the 2006 revelation of the Terrorist Financial Tracking Program.

RELATED: My first column on the SWIFT revelation from June 2006. Then a follow-up column on the subject from November 2006.

INDIAN OCEAN NAVY POWER PHOTO FOR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND: The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence sails with ships from the Royal Australian, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the French Navy aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle and its escort ships through the Gulf of Bengal. The caption says the allied fleet was participating in an anti-submarine exercise and enhancing interoperability between the U.S. and French navies.

AGGRESSOR IN GHOST PAINT: An F-16 from the 64th Aggressors Squadron takes off from Nellis AFB, Nevada wearing the unit’s new “ghost” paint scheme. According to the caption, the new paint scheme was based on an idea “generated from the 57th Wing commander’s social media account…”

IRAN’S PROXY WARRIORS BECOME A REGIME LIABILITY: My latest Creators Syndicate column.

TRUMP SIGNS DECLASSIFICATION MEMO: Powerline’s Paul Mirengoff weighs in.

Recognizing the danger to Democratic interests posed by a thorough and transparent investigation of surveillance against the Trump campaign, Rep. Adam Schiff wasted no time complaining about the declassification memo. He accused the president and the attorney general of conspiring to “weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies.”

But all they are really doing is providing access to information. If the information shows no wrongdoing, there will be nothing to “weaponize.” If the information shows wrongdoing, consequences should follow.

Read the whole thing.

BUFF RETURNS FROM THE BONEYARD A resurrected B-52H leaves the Boneyard 309th (located at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona) and returns to active duty at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.

POWERLINE ARGUES OCASIO-CORTEZ HAS SAID SOMETHING SENSIBLE: Well, sort of sensible. She’s against cauliflower in a community garden. But…

…Not for the good reason that it tastes bad, but because it represents a “colonial approach” in the context of urban community gardens. Crops like plantains and yucca are much less colonialist.

John Hinderaker has a great little chuckle at AOC’s expense.

IRAN’S PROXY ARMIES HAVE BECOME A LIABILITY: They were never plausibly deniable, anyway.

SLING LOAD LIFT FOR AN AGMV: A 2st Infantry Division CH-47 F-model Chinook lifts the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne)’s newest vehicle, the Army Ground Mobility Vehicle (AGMV). The exercise took place at Udbina Air Base, Croatia. Here’s a closeup of the AGMV.

PHILIPPINES COAST GUARD AND U.S. COAST GUARD CONDUCT SEARCH AND RESCUE TRAINING: From Seapower Magazine, a look at joint exercises in the South China Sea.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) and vessels from the Philippine coast guard conducted joint search-and-rescue exercises May 14 in the South China Sea west of Manila, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release.

The Bertholf, a 418-foot national security cutter based in Alameda, California, worked together with the Philippine coast guard vessels Batangas and Kalanggaman on small-boat search-and-rescue tactics to conduct the mock rescue of a person in the water. The Bertholf is in the midst of a Western Pacific deployment under the tactical control of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet.

In training with and learning alongside partners in the Philippines on search and rescue, maritime law enforcement and small-boat tactics, Bertholf’s crew enjoys the benefits of the strong, often personal ties between the countries, the release said.

Note maritime law enforcement. Sounds relatively peaceful, except when confronting China’s “cabbage strategy” and naval militia swarm tactics.

RELATED: Latest Philippines situation update. It’s two weeks old but it provides a useful sketch of how China employs its economic power to bully its neighbors (yes, trade power) and how Beijing uses its “naval militia” fishing boats as weapons against the Filipinos in the Pagasa Island crisis. The update also illustrates why Manila desperately wants American backup.

VERY RELATED: StrategyTalk’s latest podcast looks at the Philippines domestic political situation and its long-term struggle with China. Also consider subscribing to StrategyTalk.

HANGAR FULL OF TRAINERS: USN Training Air Wing 4 secures its fleet of T-6B Texan II and T-44C Pegasus trainers in a hangar to protect them from severe weather at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. Photo taken May 10, 2019.

AERIAL FIREFIGHTERS TRAIN FOR FIRE SEASON: Air National Guardsmen with the 152nd Airlift Wing from Reno, Nevada, drop water during the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System training and recertification week at Grand Canyon Hills, Colorado. Photo taken May 6, 2019.

CONGO’S GLOBAL EPIDEMIC WAR: The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia is a militant Islamist jihadist outfit that now links to the Islamic State. It is attacking Ebola clinics in eastern Congo.

CHINESE INFLUENCE OPERATIONS: From The Diplomat, a look at Beijing’s influence and “interference” operations:

Foreign influence operations – which can be broadly defined as the coordinated utilization of capabilities to affect changes in the perceptions, practices, and policies of foreign target audiences – in and of themselves are neither new nor not unique to China. But growing concern about aspects of the Chinese state and its broader conduct, as well as a series of recent incidents which have spotlighted the more illicit and coercive aspects of alleged influence operations – be it election interference, the bribing of key influencers, or the manipulation of media environments – have contributed to increasing the spotlight on this subject. The focus on Chinese influence operations is also occurring amid a confluence of broader trends, including intensifying major power competition…

The article mentions “permissive conditions” Beijing exploits. No kidding. Those conditions also make it easier to conduct intelligence operations. My Creators Syndicate column last week focused on China’s pervasive spying and used the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston as a telling example.

APACHE RAINBOW: An AH-64 Apache attack helicopter assigned to the 25th Infantry Division passes a rainbow near the island of Oahu.

RUSSIA’S BELOGOROD, A VERY SPECIAL SUBMARINE: “Belgorod won’t work for the navy like other subs but for the GUGI (Main Department of Deep-Water Researches) which works for the intelligence services and is attached to the navy for ship and crew support.” Read the whole thing, especially the part about Poseidon autonomous underwater vehicles that carry nuclear warheads and can travel to enemy coastal cities then detonate underwater and create tidal waves.