Archive | Blog Posts

18 May 2012

Department of Defense 2012 China Report Just Released

Download full text of report here: http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2012_CMPR_Final.pdf

Report Depicts China’s Military Progress, Strategic Thinking
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2012 – The Defense Department’s 2012 Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China report details China’s growing military capabilities, and points to areas of cooperation between the United States and China, a senior […]

Continue Reading

13 May 2012

Kindle Editions of 3 CMSI Volumes Now Available; Others to Follow

Andrew S. Erickson and Lyle J. Goldstein, eds., Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roles (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011).
Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, and Carnes Lord, eds., China Goes to Sea: Maritime Transformation in Comparative Historical Perspective (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, July 2009).
Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, William S. Murray, and Andrew R. Wilson, eds., China’s Future Nuclear […]

Continue Reading

26 April 2012

More Signs of an S-Curved Trajectory for China’s Economy?

Ruchir Sharma, “China Slows Down, and Grows Up,” New York Times, 25 April 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/opinion/china-slows-down-and-grows-up.html
MORE than half of Americans think China is already the world’s leading economy — an astonishing misperception, given that China’s gross domestic product is still less than half of America’s. As George Orwell once observed, “Whoever is winning at the moment will […]

Continue Reading

20 April 2012

Benefits of Joining the Law of the Sea Convention

Wise words from one of America’s foremost maritime leaders. Senate ratification of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is long overdue!
Adm. Bob Papp, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, “Benefits of Joining the Law of the Sea Convention,” The Hill, 19 April 2012.
My fictional hero, Capt. Jack Aubrey, of Patrick O’Brian’s “Master and Commander” series […]

Continue Reading

19 April 2012

“Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust”–A Must-Read!

Mandatory reading for all concerned observers of Sino-American relations!
Kenneth Lieberthal and Wang Jisi, Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust, John L. Thornton China Center Monograph 4 (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, March 2012).
The coauthors of this path-breaking study—one of America’s leading China specialists and one of China’s leading America specialists—lay out both the underlying concerns each leadership harbors […]

Continue Reading

16 April 2012

World’s 1st Single-Ship Circumnavigation by Chinese Navy Training Vessel Commences

On 16 April 2012, Zheng He left Dalian on the first single-ship global circumnavigation by a Chinese training vessel. This latest “first” for China’s Navy is part of a larger pattern in which it has projected power increasingly beyond the “Near Seas” (Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea) in the form of well-publicized peacetime […]

Continue Reading

04 March 2012

China’s Defense Spending to Rise 11.2% to 670.2 billion RMB (US$106.4 billion) in 2012

China’s defense budget to grow 11.2 pct in 2012: spokesman
BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) — China said Sunday it plans to raise its defense budget by 11.2 percent to 670 billion yuan (106.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012.
The year’s draft defense budget is 67.6 billion yuan (10.7 billion U.S. dollars) more than that of 2011, said […]

Continue Reading

13 January 2012

Important Article Posted on PRC Ministry of National Defense Website: “PLA should foster offensive defense thinking in developing long-range strike weapons”

This article appears designed to send a strong, clear message, and merits very careful reading, analysis, and reflection. It is accompanied by a photograph of DF-21C conventional ballistic missiles, which is one type of an potent variety of long-range strike weapons that China is developing and deploying.
Thanks to Prof. Michael Chase, Naval War College, for directing me […]

Continue Reading

12 January 2012

Dr. M. Taylor Fravel, MIT, Establishes New China Research Blog

No serious survey of strategic analysis on China is complete without reading Taylor’s detailed scholarly publications. His new website makes this easier to do than ever. I recommend that everyone take a look today! You might especially enjoy some of his research concerning the South China Sea.
For anyone who hasn’t met Taylor at his frequent […]

Continue Reading

11 January 2012

DF-21D ASBM Deployed, but China Daily Probably Incorrect in Claiming “2,700km Range”; Gen. Chen Bingde Never Said That

The 2011 ROC National Defense Report has confirmed that “a small quantity of” DF-21D ASBMs “were produced and deployed in 2010,” thereby (in the report’s view) “increasing the difficulty of military maneuvers in the region for the U.S. Army.”
Now a key question remains: what are the missile’s specific capabilities? Unfortunately, open sources do not yet […]

Continue Reading

04 January 2012

Third Summer Training Workshop on the Relationship Between National Security and Technology in China, 9-20 July 2012–Now Accepting Applications

Third Summer Training Workshop on the Relationship Between National Security and Technology in China
July 9-20, 2012
This two-week workshop examines the relationship between national security, technology, innovation, and China’s rise as a world power. Of central interest is how China is mobilizing and applying its economic, political, strategic, corporate, financial, intellectual, and scientific capabilities in conjunction […]

Continue Reading

13 December 2011

PLA Navy Looks at Offer from Seychelles

Navy looks at offer from Seychelles
Updated: 2011-12-13 06:53
By Li Xiaokun and Li Lianxing (China Daily)
BEIJING – The navy is considering taking on supplies in the Seychelles while conducting escort missions to tackle piracy.
Military experts stressed that the move did not equate to establishing military bases.
“According to escort needs and the needs of other long-range missions, […]

Continue Reading

28 November 2011

Space, China’s Tactical Frontier

Everyone interested in the military implications of Chinese space development should read this nuanced, well-researched analysis.
Eric Hagt and Matthew Durnin, “Space, China’s Tactical Frontier,” Journal of Strategic Studies, 34.5 (October 2011): 733-61.
ABSTRACT In recent years, China has made stunning progress in its satellite reconnaissance capabilities. Starting from almost no capacity for live surveillance ten years […]

Continue Reading

13 October 2011

MIT Security Studies Program Launches Nuclear Security Fellows Program

With the generosity of the Stanton Foundation, the MIT Security Studies Program is starting a new Nuclear Security Fellows Program for junior faculty as well as pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scholars. Nuclear security is defined broadly to include nuclear terrorism, nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation, nuclear weapons, nuclear doctrine and force structure, and nuclear energy as it […]

Continue Reading

13 October 2011

Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program (CWP) Now Accepting Applications

Having served as a Fellow in the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program (CWP, 中国国与世界研究项目) from 2010-11, I cannot endorse it more strongly. It offers entrée into just the community of specialists that I had always dreamed of joining when I decided to become a China scholar—serious but interesting intellectuals who contribute to the theoretical, […]

Continue Reading

02 October 2011

Translation of 10+ CMSI Publications into Japanese (日本語) by JANAFA (日米ネービー友好協会)

Meeting and Tour of Tokyo’s Sensō-ji Temple and Asakusa District with JANAFA (日米ネービー友好協会) Leadership
This January, I had the pleasure of meeting with leaders from the U.S.-Japan Navy Friendship Association (JANAFA). JANAFA plays an important role in supporting constructive relations between the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF, 海上自衛隊) and the U.S. Navy. This partnership, as part […]

Continue Reading

20 September 2011

National Bureau of Asian Research to Launch 2011 Energy Security Report “Asia’s Rising Energy and Resource Nationalism” in Washington, DC Thurs. 22 September

The National Bureau of Asian Research’s 2011 Energy Security Report, Asia’s Rising Energy and Resource Nationalism, surveys the dramatic developments taking place in Asian energy markets and their geopolitical implications. This National Bureau of Asian Research report includes an examination of the connection between energy insecurity and control of major sea lanes, the impact of Asia’s […]

Continue Reading

17 September 2011

PLA Daily Offers Latest Details on “Peace Ark” Hospital Ship’s 1st Medical Mission to Caribbean

Wang Zhenjiang and Dai Zongfeng; Cui Xinwen, editor; “‘Peace Ark’ Hospital Ship to Visit Latin America,” Liberation Army Daily, 16 September 2011.
The navy emblem is shining and the navy songs are loud and clear. All people of the “Peace Ark” hospital ship of the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held an oath-taking […]

Continue Reading

16 September 2011

PLAN Hospital Ship “Peace Ark” (“和平方舟”号医院船) Embarks on 3-Month Navy Medical Service Mission in Caribbean

China’s first purpose-built hospital ship, the 10,000-ton Type 920 Daishandao (岱山岛号)-class Peace Ark (和平方舟/AHH 866), has left on a three-month voyage. It will call on ports in Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Costa Rica as part of “Harmonious Mission -2011” (和谐使命—2011). This is China’s first operational naval mission to the Caribbean, and an interesting new use of its increasing […]

Continue Reading