Andrew S. Erickson

An inspiring achievement!
People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pilot Liu Yang, with colleagues Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, was launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 10:37:24 UTC on 16 June 2012 by a Long March 2F “carrier rocket” on the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, which will dock with China’s Tiangong-1 (天宫一号) space laboratory module. The module will […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, “Are China’s Near Seas ‘Anti-Navy’ Capabilities Aimed Directly at the United States?” Information Dissemination, 14 June 2012.
Yes, but it’s more complicated than that. In the military realm, Washington and Beijing face a situation that is complex both in concept and in policy implications. In contrast to its mostly-settled land borders, China’s island […]

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Another great primer by Owen Coté on the latest trends in undersea warfare and the physics behind them.
Owen R. Cote Jr., MIT Security Studies Program, “How Will New Submarine Sensors and Payloads Influence Naval Warfare in the 21st Century?” Information Dissemination, 4 June 2012.
Since the beginning of the 20st century, a series of new submarine […]

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Information Dissemination Marks 5th Anniversary with “Virtual Conference: Celebrating Seapower Online”
…To celebrate five years of online discussion related to Maritime Strategy and Strategic Communications, for the month of June Information Dissemination will be hosting a Virtual Conference sponsored by the United States Naval Institute. Sixteen leading voices in the maritime discussion with careers in the […]

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Keith Bradsher, “After Barreling Ahead in Recession, China Finally Slows,” New York Times, 24 May 2012.
XI’AN, China — A nationwide real estate downturn, stalling exports and declining consumer confidence have produced what a Chinese cabinet adviser, quoted on the official government Web site on Thursday, characterized as a “sharp slowdown in the economy.”
Though the Chinese […]

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Download full text of report here: http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2012_CMPR_Final.pdf
Presenter: Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (East Asia) David Helvey
May 18, 2012
Press Briefing on 2012 DOD Report to Congress on “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China”

            DIRECTOR OF PRESS OPERATIONS CAPT JANE CAMPBELL:  Good morning.  I want to welcome you […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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, […]

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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 […]

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