China Air Defense Failures Boost US Military Edge
SkimNews Take
China's setbacks in Iran and Venezuela expose a structural asymmetry: US military dominance cannot be converted into diplomatic influence, while Beijing's economic leverage operates on a separate axis where it can still erode American gains despite high-profile losses.
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- China's HQ-9B air defense missiles failed in combat in Pakistan, Venezuela, and Iran, including four consecutive days of being unable to defend, destroy, or track targets during India's Operation Sindoor
- China's JY-27 radar failed to detect any of the 150 aircraft that penetrated Venezuelan airspace during the US operation to extract Maduro, per the column
- US and Israeli forces eliminated Iran's military leadership and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a single day, the column claims
- US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro without a single US fatality — compared by the author to the multi-day Panama operation against Noriega and the nearly decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden
- Venezuela's $2 billion S-300 missile system, purchased from Russia, was rendered immobile by US fighters, bombers, and electronic warfare
- Operations Absolute Resolve and Epic Fury, the codenames for the Venezuela and Iran missions cited in the piece, 'set a new standard' for military operations per the author
Why it matters: For defense analysts and arms buyers, the column's central claim is reputational: the HQ-9B is a core Chinese export sold to Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan, and others, and its repeated combat failure could weaken China's defense-industrial leverage. The $2 billion Venezuelan S-300's neutralization adds a Russian-system data point, suggesting the US electronic warfare advantage extends beyond Chinese hardware to integrated air defenses broadly.
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