text: China once again stoked tensions along its disputed border with India by unfurling the Chinese flag on New Year’s Day near the site of a 2020 clash with Indian military forces in the Galwan Valley. The flag unfurling incident was filmed and posted on social media sites, including a Chinese state-affiliated media Twitter account promising to “Never yield an inch of land.” The site of the 2020 clash and China’s latest provocation is along the Line of Actual Control, or LAC, which is a buffer zone separating China and India at their shared border. The LAC extends across extremely high-altitude and unpopulated segments of the Karakoram and Himalayan mountains on the edge of India’s Ladakh and Sikkim regions. China has 60,000 troops deployed along its side of the LAC, while India recently deployed a 30,000 strong Mountain Strike Force on its side of the border.Chinese engineers claim to have developed an advanced hypersonic missile prototype equipped with heat-seeking technology. The heat-seeking technology would allow Chinese hypersonic missiles to acquire and self-guide onto any target that presented a thermal signature, such as ships, or even stealth aircraft and vehicles. The capability to employ heat-seeking guidance systems on hypersonic weapons is a major breakthrough since the hypersonic weapon itself creates a significant heat signature of its own that would interfere with traditional heat-seeking technology. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who holds the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), stated that Myanmar was on the verge of an all-out civil war. Sen stated “The political and security crisis in Myanmar is deepening and has led to an economic, health, and humanitarian crisis. We feel that all the ingredients for civil war are now on the table.” Sen pointed out that there are now two governments, several armed forces, a prominent civil disobedience movement, and widespread guerrilla warfare around the country.AC: China has recently begun infrastructure improvement projects along the LAC and has made regular incursions across the buffer zone, leading many Indian leaders to question the validity of the status quo agreement with China. If China has developed heat-seeking guidance for hypersonic weapons, it would be a major technical breakthrough. Such an advancement in weapons technology fielded on operational missiles could pose a significant threat to U.S. forces usually employing electronic countermeasures against radar-guided systems. It is unknown if current IR countermeasure technology can detect and defeat missiles approaching at hypersonic speeds. The U.S. is years away from achieving this technology, though it may be able to jumpstart its similar programs or build effective countermeasures by studying China’s new prototypes. The civil war in Myanmar pits a China-backed military junta against a collection of ethnic guerilla armies and pro-democracy activists. The conflict is spilling over into China, where thousands of refugees flee fighting across a porous border. – M.M.LOW INTENSITY CONFLICT INTSUMFar Left Activity Rollup & OutlookEASTFUTUREBrooklyn, New YorkSize: TBDActivity: Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) and United Federal Teachers (UFT) organize a picket against Brooklyn schools and lack of safety measures against COVID19 and white supremacy and other issues. Location: 620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217Time: 1600 EST; Wednesday, 05 JANUpcoming Event Calendar08 January: Antifa Counter Protest of Right to Life March (Chicago, IL)— END REPORT