A new way to understand China...

Andrew S. Erickson China's rapid development is reshaping the world in all dimensions. Chinese language open sources offer insights into these critical trends. While such materials are increasing constantly in number, diversity, and sophistication, only a fraction is available in English. The analyses available here, many based on sources not previously considered outside China, are designed to help bridge that gap--and thereby increase understanding of the most dynamic great power in the international system today.

04 September 2011 ~ View Comments

Assessing China’s Response to U.S. Reconnaissance Flights

Kenneth Allen and Jana Allen, “Assessing China’s Response to U.S. Reconnaissance Flights,” Jamestown China Brief (2 September 2011).
On June 29, 2011, for the first time in a decade, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force (PLAAF) J-11 crossed the center line of the Taiwan Strait in an attempted intercept of a U.S. Air Force (USAF) [...]

01 September 2011 ~ View Comments

Chinese Aerospace Power Highlighted by Bradley Perrett in Aviation Week ASBM Analysis

Bradley Perrett, “Pacific Projections: Could—And Would—China Target U.S. Ships with its DF-21D Ballistic Missile?” Aviation Week & Space Technology, 29 August-5 September 2011: 67-68.
China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile system presents one of the world’s most decisive challenges in the field of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), with potentially far-reaching consequences for international affairs. …
The main [...]

01 September 2011 ~ View Comments

Barry Watts, CSBA: The Maturing Revolution in Military Affairs

Barry Watts, The Maturing Revolution in Military Affairs (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 3 June 2011).
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments is pleased to release The Maturing Revolution in Military Affairs. The report, authored by Center Senior Fellow Barry Watts, considers the maturation of the precision-strike regime and five of the most [...]

31 August 2011 ~ View Comments

The U.S. Must Continue to Use Space and Can “Win without Fighting” There—It’s Just Not a Panacea, a Sanctuary, or a Desirable Battlefield

The positions expressed here are the author’s personal views. They do not represent the U.S. Naval War College, Navy, Department of Defense, or Government, and do not necessarily reflect the policies or estimates of these or any other organizations.
Even as the United States and China are more economically interdependent and closely connected than ever before, [...]

30 August 2011 ~ View Comments

English-Language Version of 2011 ROC National Defense Report Confirms: “a small quantity of” DF-21D ASBMs “were produced and deployed in 2010, increasing the difficulty of military maneuvers in the region for the U.S. Army.”

National Defense Report Editing Committee, Ministry of National Defense, 2011 ROC National Defense Report (Taipei: Ministry of National Defense, August 2011).
(I) Strengthening Integrated Joint Operations Capabilities
p. 71
4. Second Artillery Strike Capabilities
Under the guidance to “balance nuclear and conventional,” the PLA has continued the development of independently targetable intercontinental range ballistic missiles, strengthened strategic nuclear intimidation, [...]

29 August 2011 ~ View Comments

Defense Tech Quotes China SignPost™ (洞察中国) #43 on China’s “Starter Carrier”

“China’s ‘Starter Carrier’,” Defense Tech, 29 August 2011.
Here are some thoughts on the significance of China’s new aircraft carrier that Andrew Erickson, an expert on the PLAN at the U.S. Naval War College, passed on to Defense Tech. While China’s “starter carrier” may not compare to one of the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz class supercarriers, it [...]

29 August 2011 ~ View Comments

David Axe, AOL Defense: “China’s ‘Ripples of Capability’: An Interview with Andrew Erickson”

David Axe, “China’s ‘Ripples of Capability’: An Interview with Andrew Erickson,” AOL Defense, 29 August 2011.
For any Westerner observer struggling to understand Chinese military developments — and let’s be serious, that’s most of us — Andrew Erickson is an indispensable resource. A professor at the Naval War College, Erickson has edited an influential series of [...]

29 August 2011 ~ View Comments

David Axe, The Diplomat: “US ‘Misled Over Stealth Bomber’”

David Axe, “US ‘Misled Over Stealth Bomber’,” The Diplomat, 29 August 2011.
In 2008, a B-2 crashed at Guam, reducing the stealth fleet to its current level. In the wake of the accident, critics bemoaned the Pentagon’s tendency to concentrate increasing combat power in a decreasing number of ultra-expensive ‘platforms.’

In February 2010, there was another [...]

29 August 2011 ~ View Comments

China SignPost™ (洞察中国) #44 Cited by Walter Russell Mead in Via Media Blog, The American Interest

Walter Russell Mead, “China’s Growth To Slow By 50 Percent?” Via Media Blog, The American Interest, 29 August 2011.

Key conclusions from a paper by Gabe Collins and Andrew Erickson at China Sign Post… Read the whole thing.  … Of course nobody, including the Chinese, know what comes next in China, but these authors [...]

26 August 2011 ~ View Comments

Edward Wong, New York Times: “China State TV Deletes Video Implying Hacking of Western Sites”

Edward Wong, “China State TV Deletes Video Implying Hacking of Western Sites,” New York Times, 26 August 2011.
The main Chinese state television network has deleted from the Internet a video that some foreign military and Internet security analysts say implies China has engaged in hacking attacks on Web sites in the West.
The video was [...]