Andrew S. Erickson

Self-Study Syllabus on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (American Mandarin Society, September 2019).
Access Vocabulary List here.
Suggest edits here.
“This syllabus is organized to build understanding of the PLA in a step-by-step fashion based on one hour of reading five nights a week for four weeks. In total, the key readings add up to roughly 800 pages, rarely […]

Continue Reading

For a well-formatted bilingual PDF of the report complete with figures and appendices, check out the version Peter Wood has posted here!
Click here to download a Word doc of the English-language version.
 
China’s National Defense in the New Era
The State Council Information Office of
the People’s Republic of China
July 2019
First Edition 2019
ISBN 978-7-119-11925-0
© Foreign Languages Press Co. Ltd., Beijing, […]

Continue Reading

Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson, eds., China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2019; paperback 15 January 2023).

Paperback edition released 15 January 2023!
As with the previous six volumes in our “Studies in Chinese Maritime Development” series, an Amazon Kindle edition is available.

Author of:

Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson, “Introduction: ‘War Without Gun Smoke’—China’s […]

Continue Reading

Ian Burns McCaslin and Andrew S. Erickson, “The Impact of Xi-Era Reforms on the Chinese Navy,” Phillip C. Saunders, Arthur S. Ding, Andrew Scobell, Andrew N.D. Yang, and Joel Wuthnow, eds., Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA: Assessing Chinese Military Reforms (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 2018), 125–170.
Click here to download a cached copy of the chapter.

Translated into traditional Chinese and published as the […]

Continue Reading

What a difference a decade makes! When the definitive histories of how China became a great sea power in the 21st century are written, an important chapter will surely be devoted to a development that reached the ten-year mark today: China’s deployment of 31-and-counting naval task forces to the Gulf of Aden since 26 December 2008.
A […]

Continue Reading

What a difference a decade makes! When the definitive histories of how China became a great sea power in the 21st century are written, an important chapter will surely be devoted to a development that reached the ten-year mark today: China’s deployment of 31-and-counting naval task forces to the Gulf of Aden since 26 December […]

Continue Reading

INFORMATION & ANALYSIS CONCERNING CHINA’S MARITIME MILITIA:

Tracking China’s “Little Blue Men”—A Comprehensive Maritime Militia Compendium
Rarely is a topic so little recognized and so little understood, yet so important and so amenable to research using Chinese-language open sources… To increase awareness and understanding of this important subject, here is a convenient compendium of major publications and […]

Continue Reading

INFORMATION & ANALYSIS CONCERNING CHINA’S MARITIME MILITIA:

Tracking China’s “Little Blue Men”—A Comprehensive Maritime Militia Compendium
Rarely is a topic so little recognized and so little understood, yet so important and so amenable to research using Chinese-language open sources… To increase awareness and understanding of this important subject, here is a convenient compendium of major publications and […]

Continue Reading

Andrew S. Erickson and Austin M. Strange, “Scalene Perspectives, Isosceles Ideas and Equilateral Dependence: The U.S.-Europe-China ‘Strategic Triangle’ and Transatlantic Policy,” China International Strategy Review 2016: 337–61.
Click here to read the online version.
The United States (US), European Union (EU) and People’s Republic of China (PRC) are sometimes viewed as a “strategic triangle”, with economic, political, and security […]

Continue Reading

On p. 57, the 2018 report from Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), entitled “The China-US Relationship at a Crossroads,” does what the U.S. government should have done at the time, and has suffered unfortunate consequences for failing to do. In “Table 3-2: Major Actions Taken by China in the South China Sea,” under […]

Continue Reading

Nuclear Posture Review (Arlington, VA: Office of the Secretary of Defense, February 2018).
Click here to download a full-text PDF of the officially-released report.
Read Executive Summary in English, РУССКИЙ, 中文, 한국어, 日本語, or FRANÇAIS.
Key China-Related Excerpts:
p. 2
The United States remains committed to its efforts in support of the ultimate global elimination of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. […]

Continue Reading

106年國防報告書 [2017 National Defense Report] (台北 [Taipei]: 中華民國國防部 [Republic of China, Ministry of National Defense], December 2017).
Click here to download the full-text Chinese-language version.
The Chinese-language cartoon version (to engage a popular audience) is available here.
Click here to access a complete bilingual set of biannual reports dating back to 1992.
Initial media coverage here and here.
 

序言
中華民國長期以來，是亞太地區維持和平、穩定和繁榮的重要成員。雖然， 我國與周邊國家皆無正式邦交，但我們以友善、誠信、互惠的原則，遂行實質
的交流，來構建一個穩定的安全環境，積極對區域安全、甚至國際社會，提供 […]

Continue Reading

Andrew S. Erickson, “How Strong Are China’s Armed Forces?” in Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, eds., The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018), 73–80. 

Simplified Chinese translation: 艾立信 [Andrew S. Erickson], “中国的军事力量有多强大?” [How Strong Are China’s Armed Forces?], in 陆德芙 [Jennifer Rudolph] and 宋怡明 [Michael Szonyi], 编 [Editors]; 余江 [Yu Jiang] and 郑言 [Zheng Yan], 译 [Translators]; 中国36问—对一个崛起大国的洞察 [The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising […]

Continue Reading

Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, eds., The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018).

陆德芙 [Jennifer Rudolph] and 宋怡明 [Michael Szonyi], 编 [Editors]; 余江 [Yu Jiang] and 郑言 [Zheng Yan], 译 [Translators]; 中国36问—对一个崛起大国的洞察 [The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power] (Cambridge, MA: 哈佛大学费正清中国研究中心 [John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University], 2020).

Simplified Chinese translation of my chapter: 艾立信 [Andrew S. […]

Continue Reading

On this we should all agree: the historic Work Report that Xi Jinping delivered at China’s 19th National Party Congress on 18 October 2017 bears careful reading.
 
To that end, here’s the official Chinese-language text:
习近平, “决胜全面建成小康社会 夺取新时代中国特色社会主义伟大胜利——在中国共产党第十九次全国代表大会上的报告,” 2017年10月18日.
(In case you cannot access the link above or do not wish to do so, please scroll to […]

Continue Reading

The international community keeps a close watch on China’s security policy and its military trends. The Japanese public has been increasingly aware of the large impact of China’s rising military (and economic) power that may have a huge impact on Japanese security. China, now the second largest economy in the world, has become an essentially […]

Continue Reading

“关于在文昌木兰头规划建设三沙战略腹地和民兵渔船停泊港的建议” [Proposal for the Planning and Construction of Wenchang Mulantou Rear Area for Sansha and Harbor for Mooring Maritime Militia Fishing Vessels], submitted to the Hainan Provincial Government, 12 February 2015.
This proposal, as a result of a special assessment made by the Development Research Center of the State Council and submitted to the Hainan Provincial […]

Continue Reading

萧雨 [Xiao Yu], “南海仲裁在即 潭门渔民集体封口” [South China Sea Arbitration Imminent—Tanmen Fishermen Collective Seals Mouth],  美国之音 [Voice of America], 23 June 2016.
中菲南中国海仲裁案最后裁决的日子越发临近，一些西方记者来到中国海南省琼海市一个以“海上民兵连”著称的小渔村，发现一股显然是来自中国政府的力量正包围着这里。
紧紧尾随的政府车

Continue Reading

From Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS, 防衛研究所), a worthy complement to the U.S. Department of Defense’s annual report to Congress on Chinese military and security issues!
Click here for the full text of the 2016 report.
The international community keeps a close watch on China’s security policy and its military trends. The Japanese public has […]

Continue Reading