11 April 2015

How Will China View the New Maritime Strategy

Bryan McGrath, “How Will China View the New Maritime Strategy,” Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 8 April 2015.
The military services responsible for American seapower (Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard) recently released their new maritime strategy, entitled “Forward, Engaged, Ready: A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.” The reviews thus far have been positive, […]

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11 April 2015

Washington Free Beacon Becomes 1st Western Newspaper to Publish Likely Photo of China’s New YJ-18 Supersonic Anti-Ship Cruise Missile

Bill Gertz, “ONI Reveals Massive Chinese Naval Buildup—New Supersonic Cruise Missile Deployed,” Washington Free Beacon, 10 April 2015.
… The Office of Naval Intelligence, in its first unclassified assessment of the Chinese navy in six years, revealed deployment of the new YJ-18 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile on warships and submarines that analysts say poses a major threat to […]

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10 April 2015

U.S. Exposes China’s Growing Maritime Power

Andrew S. Erickson, “U.S. Exposes China’s Growing Maritime Power,” The National Interest, 10 April 2015.
Originally published as: Andrew S. Erickson, “Navy Intel Charts Chinese Sea Change: Office of Naval Intelligence Releases First Unclassified PLAN Report in Six Years,” China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国, 9 April 2015.
What a difference six years makes! Since the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence […]

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10 April 2015

China Is Rapidly Adding Coast Guard Ships, U.S. Navy Says

Jane Perlez, “China Is Rapidly Adding Coast Guard Ships, U.S. Navy Says,” New York Times, 10 April 2015.
SINGAPORE — China is rapidly building Coast Guard ships, the vessels that China most commonly uses for patrols in the South China Sea, and in the last three years has increased the number of ships in that category 25 percent, […]

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10 April 2015

How U.S. Navy Intel Sees China’s Maritime Forces

Andrew Erickson, “How U.S. Navy Intel Sees China’s Maritime Forces,” War on the Rocks, 10 April 2015.
In its first unclassified report on the subject in six years, the Office of Naval Intelligence depicts a powerful trajectory for China’s maritime forces. Titled “The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century,” the document and […]

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10 April 2015

China’s Island Builders: The People’s War at Sea

Andrew S. Erickson and Conor M. Kennedy, “China’s Island Builders: The People’s War at Sea,” Foreign Affairs, 9 April 2015.

Recent satellite images show that the Spratly islands, a series of features in the South China Sea, are growing at a staggering pace. Tons of sand, rocks, coral cuttings, and concrete are transforming miniscule Chinese-occupied outcroppings into sizeable islands […]

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09 April 2015

Navy Intel Charts Chinese Sea Change: Office of Naval Intelligence Releases First Unclassified PLAN Report in Six Years

Andrew S. Erickson, “Navy Intel Charts Chinese Sea Change: Office of Naval Intelligence Releases First Unclassified PLAN Report in Six Years,” China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国, 9 April 2015.
What a difference six years makes! Since the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) last issued an unclassified report on China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in 2009, […]

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06 April 2015

Cooperating in the South China Sea

Capt. Takuya Shimodaira, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, “Cooperating in the South China Sea,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 141.4 (April 2015).
Humanitarian aid/ disaster relief offers the ideal means for China to work in harmony with fellow Asian nations—and Japan is uniquely suited by hard experience to be a guiding force.
In the last 20 years, the People’s […]

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06 April 2015

China Moves Out: Stepping Stones toward a New Maritime Strategy

Christopher H. Sharman, China Moves Out: Stepping Stones toward a New Maritime Strategy, China Strategic Perspectives 9 (Washington, DC: National Defense University, April 2015).
Commander Christopher Sharman, a Navy officer and National War College student, has just published a new NDU China Strategic Perspectives monograph, “China Moves Out: Stepping Stones toward a New Maritime Strategy.” Based on detailed analysis of 11 […]

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05 April 2015

19-20 May CMSI Conference on “China’s Naval Shipbuilding: Progress and Challenges”

UPDATE: Click here to download final conference agenda.
U.S. citizen guests, please register via link here to attend this conference. Kindly note: international attendance is by invitation only.
Dear Prospective Attendees,
We are pleased to announce that registration for the 2015 Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) conference “China’s Naval Shipbuilding: Progress and Challenges,” to be held in […]

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01 April 2015

Chinese Nationals Evacuate Yemen on PLA Navy Frigate

Shannon Tiezzi, “Chinese Nationals Evacuate Yemen on PLA Navy Frigate,” The Diplomat, 30 March 2015.
Amid increasing violence, China pulls over 500 citizens out of Yemen.
As the violence in Yemen worsens, with Saudi Arabia leading air strikes against Houthi forces, China has joined a number of countries in evacuating personnel from the country. China sent a […]

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01 April 2015

As China Expands Its Navy, the U.S. Grows Wary

Jeremy Page, “As China Expands Its Navy, the U.S. Grows Wary,” Wall Street Journal, 30 March 2015.
Washington is divided over whether Beijing should be viewed as naval partner or potential adversary
China’s navy chief, Adm. Wu Shengli, strolled the Harvard University campus in a tweed blazer and slacks during a visit to the U.S. last fall, […]

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01 April 2015

China’s Second Navy

Want to understand China’s Coast Guard? Given its emergence as China’s Second Navy in the Near Seas—and the world’s largest blue-water coast guard fleet—you should. And there’s simply no better published source of understanding in English today than Ryan Martinson’s recent series of articles on the subject. Here’s the latest and greatest—a pithy, powerful piece […]

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01 April 2015

Rare Insights on One of the World’s Most Powerful Men: Evan Osnos Profiles Xi Jinping in The New Yorker

By any measure, Chinese ‘commander in chief of everything’ Xi Jinping is one of the most powerful and consequential people on the planet. Less theatrical and publicly-exposed than Vladimir Putin, he exercises even more far-reaching control of an even more powerful country. Yet little is known outside China about Xi, particularly concerning the formative experiences, personality, […]

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31 March 2015

Shades of Gray: Technology, Strategic Competition, and Stability in Maritime Asia

Worthwhile analysis on a timely topic! The Asia-Pacific is a technology-intensive theater, making it all the more vital to understand key technological dynamics therein.
Amy Chang, Ben FitzGerald, and Van Jackson, Shades of Gray: Technology, Strategic Competition, and Stability in Maritime Asia (Washington, DC: Center for a New American Security, 30 March 2015).
In this seventh paper […]

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31 March 2015

Meet the Chinese Maritime Militia Waging a “People’s War at Sea”

Andrew S. Erickson and Conor M. Kennedy, “Meet the Chinese Maritime Militia Waging a ‘People’s War at Sea’,” China Real Time Report (中国实时报), Wall Street Journal, 31 March 2015.

When the Philippines announced last week that it was restarting construction in disputed areas of the South China Sea in response to China’s own construction binge, it entered […]

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28 March 2015

Registration Open for 19-20 May 2015 CMSI Conference—“China’s Naval Shipbuilding: Progress and Challenges”

Please register via link here to attend this conference. Note: international attendance is by invitation only.
Dear Prospective Attendees,
We are pleased to announce that registration for the 2015 Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) conference “China’s Naval Shipbuilding: Progress and Challenges,” to be held in Newport, RI on 19-20 May, is now open.
The annual CMSI Conference […]

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28 March 2015

Minefields at Sea: From The Tsars to Putin

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., “Minefields at Sea: From The Tsars to Putin,” Breaking Defense, 23 March 2015.
This is the first of three stories on the crucial but neglected question of sea mines and how well — or not — the United States manages this very real global threat. Since World War II, mines have sunk or […]

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26 March 2015

When Eagle Meets Dragon: Managing Risk in Maritime East Asia

Peter A. Dutton and Andrew S. Erickson, “When Eagle Meets Dragon: Managing Risk in Maritime East Asia,” RealClearDefense, 25 March 2015.
On 19 August 2014 a U.S. Navy (USN) P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft was flying in international airspace above the Chinese exclusive economic zone (EEZ) ~135 miles east of Hainan Island in the South China Sea when […]

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