Andrew S. Erickson

The Pentagon’s new China Military Power Report focuses on concisely reviewing new PLA and related developments (rather than rehashing previous years’s analysis or providing general background). The 2025 edition (25th in the series) has some of the most extensive and informative infographics ever.
More analysis to follow, but two disclosures alone makes the report worth reviewing […]

Office of the Secretary of War, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2025 (Washington, DC: Department of Defense/War, 23 December 2025).

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A CACHED COPY.
The Pentagon’s new China Military Power Report focuses on concisely reviewing new PLA & related developments (rather than rehashing previous years’s analysis or providing general […]

Now that the Pentagon has just released the 2025 China Military Power Report (CMPR)… you can access the Full Text & accompanying documents below. Since I couldn’t find a single-source location on the Internet, and the Pentagon has deactivated some of the previous links, I decided to make my own. Now you can download cached PDFs […]

Andrew S. Erickson, Review of Brian C.H. Fong, U.S.-China Rivalry: Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Edinburgh University Press, November 2024); in Naval War College Review 78.2 (Summer/Fall 2025): 145–46.

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US-China Rivalry: Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific, by Brian C. H. Fong. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2024. […]

Ying Tian, “A New Pillar for Distant Oceans: Concepts for the Chinese Navy’s New Generation of General-Purpose Destroyers,” CMSI Translation 25 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 18 December 2025).

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From CMSI Director CAPT Christopher H. Sharman, USN (Ret.):
China Navy Watchers: What kind of surface combatant does China’s […]

Honored to see our latest coedited volume, “Chinese Amphibious Warfare,” on the Commandant of the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program’s 2025 and 2026 Reading Lists!

“Explores China’s military modernization and strategic ambitions for Taiwan amid rising Great Power tensions.”
One of five books on “Great Power Competition.”
Listed under “Strategy: Examines the art of aligning ends, ways, and means […]

Maritime Geopolitics of the Belt and Road Initiative, CMSI Quarterly Review 1.1 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 9 December 2025).

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FROM THE DIRECTOR 
The China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) Translation Vault 
This series presents a curated collection of open-source Chinese-language journal and newspaper articles that were originally published […]

John B. Hattendorf, Sailors and Scholars: The History of the U.S. Naval War College, 1884–2009, Second Edition, Vol. 2 (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 2025), 546–49, 553–54; 412–13, 418, 468, 530, 640, 649, 695–96, 729.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF OF CMSI-RELATED CONTENT & VOLUME INFORMATION.

From CMSI Director CAPT Christopher H. Sharman, USN (Ret.):
China Military […]

Camilla T. N. Sørensen and Adam Buschard, Kina som global militær stormagt – militærstrategiske perspektiver for dansk forsvar [China as a Global Military Power—Military Strategic Perspectives for Danish Defense] (Syddansk Universitetsforlag i samarbejde med Forsvarsakademiet [Southern Danish University Press in collaboration with the Royal Danish Defence College], 10 June 2025).

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Andrew S. Erickson, “An Oxbow in the River of Time? ‘River Elegy’ and China’s Quest for Modern Greatness,” Harvard Fairbank Center Blog Post, 19 November 2025.
Professor Erickson revisits River Elegy, the banned 1988 documentary series, and the landmark moment to which it’s tied: when China publicly questioned its own traditions, urging openness, democracy, and scientific progress […]

Rear Admiral Zhu Chuansheng, “Accelerating the Development of Marine Corps Combat Capabilities to Win in High-End Maritime Warfare,” CMSI Translation 24 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 19 November 2025).

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From CMSI Director CAPT Christopher H. Sharman, USN (Ret.):
This CMSI translation provides unparalleled insights into the development and […]

“A timely, essential contribution underscoring the urgency of fortifying America’s defense posture to meet China’s rising challenge. Freymann and Halem offer a clear-eyed assessment of the strategic and industrial shortfalls that must be addressed. Their historically grounded, technologically informed analysis stresses that effective deterrence requires both operational innovation and the political will to reform our […]

Christopher H. Sharman and Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Future World-Class Navy: Ends, Ways, Means,” in Benjamin Frohman and Jeremy Rausch, eds., The PLA’s Long March toward a World-Class Military: Progress, Ambitions, and Obstacles (Seattle, WA: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2025), 196–218.
READ OUR KEY POINTS HERE.
DOWNLOAD OUR CHAPTER HERE.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF […]

Andrew S. Erickson and Christopher H. Sharman, “Replacement Removed: VADM/General Wang Houbin—Naval Star Turned Rocket Force Commander’s Terminal Trajectory,” CMSI Note 17 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 20 October 2025; officially published 13 November 2025).
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this informally offered and shared EARLY-VIEW ADVANCE DRAFT COPY of the research […]

Key removals just announced by China’s Ministry of National Defense Spokesperson:
1. General He Weidong, Member, Political Bureau, CCP Central Committee & [Second] Vice Chairman, CMC
2. Admiral Miao Hua, CMC Member & former Director, CMC Political Work Department [Click here for CMSI report.]
3. General He Hongjun, former Executive Deputy Director, CMC Political Work Department
4. General Wang […]

As we wind through the Year of the Snake, China under Xi is steaming full speed ahead, particularly at sea. Navigate troubled Indo-Pacific waters by consulting the latest version of Modern Chinese Maritime Forces! This most recent iteration of the Second Edition includes sections for PLA Army (pp. 65–77) and PLA Air Force (pp. 78–80) […]

Wang Xiangxiang, “The Elusive ‘Deep-Sea Beast’: Analysis of the Performance of the Main Equipment of the U.S. Navy Virginia-Class Nuclear Attack Submarine,” CMSI Translation 23 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 30 September 2025).

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A CACHED COPY.
From CMSI Director CAPT Christopher H. Sharman, USN (Ret.):
China Navy Watchers: How does […]

Andrew S. Erickson, Review of Brian C.H. Fong, U.S.-China Rivalry: Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Edinburgh University Press, November 2024), 13–21; in Il Hyun Cho, ed., “The Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-4 on Fong, US-China Rivalry,” H-Diplo Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum Review Roundtable with Alice D. Ba, Andrew S. Erickson, Yuan-kang […]

Chang Lei, Birth of the PLA Navy, May 1950 – November 1965 (Admiralty Trilogy Group, 6 September 2025).

Chang Lei’s Birth of the PLA Navy features surface and air battles off the coast of China during the early days of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, from May of 1950 to November 1965. It includes twenty-two historical and hypothetical battles between […]