Andrew S. Erickson

Peter Mattis, “Observations on PLA Studies,” China Policy Institute Blog, University of Nottingham, 30 September 2015.
As China’s military modernization accelerated throughout the 1990s and 2000s, an outpouring of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) publications threatened to drown specialists in data. These sources, many of them available on the internet, have been a boon for analysts, providing […]

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Ian E. Rinehart and David Gitter, The Chinese Military: Overview and Issues for Congress R44196 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 18 September 2015).
Summary
China is building a modern and regionally powerful military with a modest but growing capability for conducting operations away from China’s immediate periphery. The question of how the United States should respond to […]

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This concentration of power and decision-making, combined with severe new limitations in authoritative channels to communicate and consult back and forth with the outside world, is highly worrisome. It could be particularly problematic in the event of a foreign policy-related incident or crisis, in which both rapid decision-making and effective external consultation and communication might […]

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James Hardy and Sean O’Connor, “China Completes Runway on Fiery Cross Reef,” IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, 25 September 2015.
Key Points

China has completed the runway on Fiery Cross Reef, its largest base in the Spratly Islands, Airbus Defence and Space satellite imagery dated 20 September has shown
The completion of the runway could enable China to accelerate […]

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Sean O’Connor, “China May Be Building First Indigenous Carrier,” IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, 24 September 2015.
Click here to access set of five accompanying images offered by IHS Jane’s.
Key Points

An unidentified hull in an advanced state of construction at Dalian shipyard could be China’s first indigenous aircraft carrier
While a conclusive identification of the hull as an aircraft […]

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H.R. McMaster; review of Carnes Lord and Andrew S. Erickson, eds., Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia-Pacific (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2014); in Survival: Global Politics and Strategy 57.5 (October-November 2015), 232-33.
United States military forces positioned overseas or engaged regionally on a rotational basis have been a mainstay of the global security […]

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Gregory Kulacki, “Peaches, Plums and the Challenge of Cross-Cultural Communication,” China in Focus #19, All Things Nuclear: Insights on Science and Security, Union of Concerned Scientists, 24 September 2015.
Chinese President Xi Jinping likes to use Chinese idioms in his public remarks. While speaking to a select group of U.S. luminaries in Seattle on the first day […]

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Here are some of my recent thoughts on Chinese dredging and island-manufacturing activities in the South China Sea (SCS):
While countries other than China have also been involved in dredging and island-construction in the SCS, China has far surpassed its neighbors—combined—in both construction to date and future potential. It has deployed one of the world’s largest dredging […]

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Click here for English-language version.
Click here for Chinese-language version.
Click here for some preliminary text analysis.
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a policy speech on China-US ties Tuesday night, at a welcome banquet jointly hosted by Washington State government and friendly communities in Seattle, the United States. Xi arrived in this east Pacific coast city on Tuesday […]

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Fascinating analysis at a critical time in U.S.-China relations and the two nations’ respective societal dynamics and domestic politics!
Alastair Iain Johnston and Mingming Shen, eds., Perception and Misperception in American and Chinese Views of the Other (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 22 September 2015).
The underlying beliefs that people in the United States and […]

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Camerashy: Closing the Aperture on China’s Unit 78020 (ThreatConnect Inc. and Defense Group Inc., 2015).
Read an overview of the report in the Wall Street Journal.
ThreatConnect Inc. and Defense Group Inc. (DGI) have partnered to share threat intelligence
pertaining to the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group commonly known as “Naikon” within the information security industry. Our partnership […]

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Presented by the National Bureau of Asian Research
NEW CONTENT DAILY
On September 22, President Xi Jinping will arrive in Seattle for a series of private meetings with top U.S. business leaders and his only public address. This will be his first stop in his state visit to the United States, which will also take him to […]

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Paul Lewandowski, “Does China’s New Missile Threaten US Power in the Pacific?” Parallax World, 16 September 2015.
The DF-21D Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile was unveiled publicly at the Chinese Victory Day parade, raising questions about the US carrier fleet’s vulnerability in the Pacific. …
The Global Times… declared that, after nearly a decade of the weapon’s development, the DF-21D’s coming-out […]

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This excellent book examining possible PLA futures has only become more important in light of Xi Jinping’s recently-announced military restructuring! It was an honor for me to serve as a discussant at the conference at which this book’s chapters were originally presented as draft papers, and I can attest that this volume is a worthy […]

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Andrew Erickson and Kevin Bond, “Essay: China’s Island Building Campaign Could Hint toward Further Expansions in Indian Ocean,” USNI News, 17 September 2015.
China’s creation of military-relevant facilities on its newly-created islands in the South China Sea is a cause for concern for countries in Southeast Asia, and several of its investments in the Indian Ocean […]

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Victor Robert Lee, “South China Sea: Satellite Imagery Shows China’s Buildup on Fiery Cross Reef,” The Diplomat, 16 September 2015.
New capabilities of Chinese installations in the Spratlys may include sophisticated over-the-horizon radar
Reposted with author’s explicit written permission.
Recent satellite imagery of Fiery Cross in the Spratly Islands reveals that China’s construction of facilities on the reef […]

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Eric Heginbotham, Michael Nixon, Forrest E. Morgan, Jacob Heim, Jeff Hagen, Sheng Li, Jeffrey G. Engstrom, Martin C. Libicki, Paul DeLuca, David A. Shlapak, David R. Frelinger, Burgess Laird, Kyle Brady, and Lyle J. Morris, The U.S.-China Military Scorecard: Forces, Geography, and the Evolving Balance of Power, 1996-2017 (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, September 2015).
Over the […]

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You simply can’t afford to miss the timely treatment of important subjects offered here:
Decoding China’s Maritime Decision-making
  This issue of AMTI explores China’s maritime policymaking process by breaking down the organizational structure of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the State, and attempting to shed light on how decisions are reached. […]

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Check out this related sequence of amazing island building photos!
Steven Mufson, “Chinese Activity in South China Sea Poses Complications for Obama,” Washington Post, 11 September 2015.
China appears to be taking new steps to lay down airfields on two reefs in a disputed area of the South China Sea on the eve of Chinese President Xi […]

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