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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24 March 2015

Crowding the Waters: The Need for Crisis Management in the East China Sea

Adam P. Liff and Andrew S. Erickson, “Crowding the Waters: The Need for Crisis Management in the East China Sea,” Foreign Affairs, 23 March 2015.
Since September 2012, the waters and airspace surrounding the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea have become increasingly crowded. China is conducting more military and paramilitary operations, and Japan is […]

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20 March 2015

New Areas in Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation: Space Security and Cyber Security

Andrew S. Erickson, “亚太安全合作新领域: 太空安全与网络安全” [New Areas in Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation: Space Security and Cyber Security], in Zhao Weibin, Li Shuisheng, and Chen Xuehui, chief eds., Asia-Pacific Security: New Issues and New Ideas [亚太地区安全: 新问题与新思路] (Beijing: Military Science Press [军事科学出版社], 2014), 103-04.

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18 March 2015

China (Finally) Admits to Hacking

As I’ve often said, China is often more transparent in Chinese…
Shannon Tiezzi, “China (Finally) Admits to Hacking,” The Diplomat, 18 March 2015.
An updated military document for the first time admits that the Chinese government sponsors offensive cyber units.
China’s military has finally pulled back the curtain on its cyber strategy, admitting for the first time that […]

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15 March 2015

China’s Military Modernization: Many Improvements, Three Challenges, and One Opportunity

Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Military Modernization: Many Improvements, Three Challenges, and One Opportunity,” in Jacques deLisle and Avery Goldstein, eds., China’s Challenges (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 178-203.
China has exploited key technological and military operational trends to address its core security interests relatively efficiently, and with increasing effectiveness, to the potential detriment of the interests of its […]

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13 March 2015

Highlights from New U.S. Maritime Strategy: “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: Forward, Engaged, Ready”

The U.S. Sea Services’ freshly issued document has the makings of a serious strategy. It provides vital specificity that its predecessor eight years ago lacked, yet does so in a positive way. This is an excellent model for the larger Asia-Pacific Strategy (or perhaps an “Indo-Asia-Pacific Strategy”), that the Nation continues to lack, yet truly […]

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