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Read today's newsletter: Europe’s biggest arms show playing out beneath shadow of Russia-Ukraine war

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Bill Gertz

Bill Gertz

bgertz@washingtontimes.com

Bill Gertz is a national security correspondent for The Washington Times. He has been with The Times since 1985.
He is the author of eight books, four of them national best-sellers. His latest book, "Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China's Drive for Global Supremacy," reveals details about the growing threat posed by the People's Republic of China. He is also the author of the ebook "How China's Communist Party Made the World Sick."
Mr. Gertz also writes Inside the Ring, a weekly column that chronicles the U.S. national security bureaucracy.
Mr. Gertz has been a guest lecturer at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.; the Central Intelligence Agency in Virginia; the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington; and the Brookings Institution in Washington. He has participated in the National Security Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
He studied English literature at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and journalism at George Washington University. He is married and has two daughters.
He can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Bill Gertz

In this Tuesday, July 11, 2017, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a ship carrying Chinese military personnel departs a port in Zhanjiang, south China's Guangdong Province. (Wu Dengfeng/Xinhua News Agency via AP) (credit) **FILE**

Inside the Ring: China eyes Pakistan port

After opening its first foreign military base near the Horn of Africa, China is preparing to build a second military facility in Gwadar, Pakistan.

October 18, 2017
This undated file photo distributed on Sept. 3, 2017, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, second from right, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File) (Associated press)

Inside the Ring: Congress seeks IG probe of radio

Four members of Congress have asked the State Department inspector general to investigate whether China coerced the Voice of America into canceling a live radio interview with a Chinese dissident.

October 4, 2017
U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift addresses an Australian National University security conference in Canberra, Australia Thursday, July 27, 2017. Swifts said he would launch a nuclear strike against China next week if U.S. President Donald Trump ordered it and warned against the military ever shifting its allegiance from its commander in chief. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)

Inside the Ring: Swift torpedoed

Adm. Scott Swift, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet who was the leading candidate to become the next commander of the Pacific Command, was informed this week he will not be the nominee and instead will retire.

September 27, 2017
Sinodefence.com China is developing warheads for its new JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile for use in anti-satellite weapons.

Foreign space threats grow

China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are developing weapons and other capabilities to destroy vulnerable U.S. satellites in space, according to a think tank report on foreign space threats.

September 6, 2017
This Aug. 29, 2017 photo distributed on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, smiles as Kim inspects the test launch of a Hwasong-12 intermediate range missile in Pyongyang, North Korea. Leader Kim called for more ballistic missile tests targeting the Pacific Ocean, Pyongyang announced Wednesday, a day after his nation for the first time flew a ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload over Japan. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

Inside the Ring: North Korea nuclear test signs detected by U.S.

Amid the latest North Korean missile test that overflew Japan, U.S. intelligence agencies recently detected increased activity at the North's main underground nuclear testing facility in the northeastern part of the country that signal preparations for a sixth underground test blast.

August 30, 2017
Chinese students work on the Ares, a humanoid bipedal robot designed by them with fundings from a Shanghai investment company, displayed during the World Robot Conference in Beijing. China's government announced Thursday, July 21, 2017, a goal of transforming the country into a global leader in artificial intelligence in just over a decade, putting additional political support behind growing investment by Chinese companies in developing self-driving cars and other advances. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Inside the Ring: Report: AI threatens humanity

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing warfare and espionage in ways similar to the invention of nuclear arms and ultimately could destroy humanity, according to a new government-sponsored study.

August 23, 2017
A rower paddles down the Charles River near the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Tuesday, March 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: China’s $360 million gift to Harvard

China is providing Harvard University with $360 million that a former military intelligence analyst says appears to be part of an effort to influence one of America's most important educational institutions.

August 16, 2017
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency will take greater control of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense missile system from Boeing at the end of this year, according a spokesman. This is a major shift in oversight. (Department of Defense)

Inside the Ring: Military building for info warfare

Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate this week that the military is taking steps to improve its capabilities for countering and conducting information warfare — the use of cyberattacks and influence operations.

July 19, 2017
This photo distributed by the North Korean government shows what was said to be the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM, in North Korea's northwest, Tuesday, July 4, 2017. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this photo. North Korea claimed to have tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile in a launch Tuesday, a potential game-changing development in its push to militarily challenge Washington but a declaration that conflicts with earlier South Korean and U.S. assessments that it had an intermediate range. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: North Korea’s ICBM warhead

Photographic analysis of North Korea's new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) reveals the nose cone of the nuclear-capable rocket appears similar to a suspected Chinese-supplied warhead for a Pakistani nuclear-capable missile.

July 5, 2017
The proposed sale of a stake in 666 Fifth Ave., a Manhattan skyscraper owned by Kushner Cos., to the Chinese state-connected insurance company Anbang has officials in Beijing concerned about fallout. (Associated Press)

Robert Mueller’s probe has China fearing negative U.S. sentiment

The political hysteria sweeping Washington over allegations of Russian meddling in the presidential election is reverberating in China. The communist government is worried that a similar wave of anti-China sentiment will take hold in the United States.

June 21, 2017
North Koreans, who honor late leaders Kim Il-sung, and Kim Jong-il, are thought to be plotting Hidden Cobra, an operation intended to hijack computer devices for large-scale cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure. (Associated Press/File)

North Korea threatens hack to attack infrastructure

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned this week that North Korea is using malicious software to set up networks of hijacked computer devices that can be used in large-scale cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

June 14, 2017
In this Sept. 15, 2016, file photo, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Inside the Ring: China joins practice

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson spoke recently about the need to protect American military advantages, but appears unconcerned by Chinese spying on naval exercises.

May 31, 2017
John Rood, a veteran national security policymaker, has emerged as the leading candidate of Defense Secretary James Mattis to be the next undersecretary of defense for policy.

Inside the Ring: John Rood leads in Pentagon policymaker search

John Rood, a veteran national security policymaker, has emerged as the leading candidate of Defense Secretary James Mattis to be the next undersecretary of defense for policy, the key policymaking post at the Pentagon, according to U.S. defense officials.

May 24, 2017