Andrew S. Erickson

The latest edition of the following report addresses China Maritime Militia (CMM) activity specifically, offering more coverage than the previous edition of 8 June 2016. It’s long overdue for reports from the Department of Defense, Defense Intelligence Agency, Office of Naval Intelligence, and other organizations charged with issuing specific public estimates added their own authoritative statements […]

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Happy to see my colleagues Peter Dutton, Ryan Martinson, and Conor Kennedy cited so extensively in this report!
Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 29 March 2017), RL33153.
Summary
China is building a modern and regionally powerful navy with a limited but growing capability for conducting operations beyond […]

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Jared Dummitt and Eliot Kim, “Water Wars: Cooperation ‘of the Right Time, in the Right Place and with the Support of the People’,” Lawfare Blog, 31 March 2017.
Analysis, Commentary, and Additional Information
Several analysts have described an increasing trend towards the mobilization of non-Navy forces in the South China Sea. Andrew Erickson of the U.S. Naval War […]

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Andrew Jacobs and Jane Perlez, “U.S. Wary of Its New Neighbor in Djibouti: A Chinese Naval Base,” New York Times, 25 February 2017.
… With no shared border, China and the United States mostly circle each other from afar, relying on satellites and cybersnooping to peek inside the workings of each other’s war machines.
But the two strategic rivals are about […]

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Thomas J. Culora, “Maritime Hybrid Warfare Is Coming,” Comment & Discussion, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 143.1 (January 2017): 8, 76.
(See J. Stavridis, pp. 30–33, December 2016 Proceedings)
Thomas J. Culora, Dean, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, Naval War College—Admiral Stavridis unpacks the strategic and operational implications and identifies the challenges presented by this asymmetric form of […]

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2016 Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, Second Session, 16 November 2016.
pp. 29-30
THE COMMISSION’S KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
The Commission considers 10 of its 20 recommendations to Congress to be of particular significance. The complete list of recommendations appears at the Report’s conclusion on page 507.
The Commission recommends:

Congress […]

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2016 Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, Second Session, 16 November 2016.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has just released the 2016 Annual Report to Congress. This year’s report covers Chinese overcapacity, investment in the United States, state-owned enterprise reform, China’s military buildup, espionage threats […]

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A timely and persuasive argument that the U.S. government can and should do far more to unleash the power of publicly-released information. Case in point: abundant open sources illuminate the activities of China’s Maritime Militia.
James E. Fanell and Ryan D. Martinson, “Countering Chinese Expansion through Mass Enlightenment,” Center for International Maritime Security, 18 October 2016.
From […]

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The latest edition of the following report addresses China Maritime Militia (CMM) activity specifically. It’s high time that reports from the Department of Defense, Defense Intelligence Agency, Office of Naval Intelligence, and other organizations charged with issuing specific public estimates added their own authoritative statements on this vital issue!
Ronald O’Rourke, Maritime Territorial and Exclusive Economic Zone […]

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Jesse Johnson, “Chinese Air Force Announces ‘Regular’ Exercises Flying through Key Entryway into Western Pacific,” Japan Times, 13 September 2016.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force has announced that it will be organizing “regular” exercises that fly past the so-called first island chain — a key entryway into the Western Pacific that includes Japan’s Ryukyu Islands […]

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Ronald O’Rourke, Maritime Territorial and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Disputes Involving China: Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 8 June 2016), R42784.
Summary
China’s actions for asserting and defending its maritime territorial and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) claims in the East China (ECS) and South China Sea (SCS), particularly since late 2013, have heightened concerns among […]

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David Axe, “Little Blue Men: China Launches a Stealth Invasion in the South China Sea,” The Daily Beast, 9 August 2016.
Beijing isn’t fighting for control of disputed waters with missiles and drones—it’s using Chinese coast guard and fisherman instead.
On Aug. 6, the Chinese government sent a stealth invasion force sailing into the disputed waters surrounding […]

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J. Michael Cole, “China Opens Large Fishing Port to ‘Safeguard’ South China Sea Claims,” The News Lens International, 2 August 2016.
A new port facility in Hainan could serve as a base for China’s ‘maritime militias’ in the disputed South China Sea.
China on Monday officially opened a new fishing port at Yazhou, Hainan Province, to host fishing vessels […]

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Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 17 June 2016), RL33153.
Summary
China is building a modern and regionally powerful navy with a limited but growing capability for conducting operations beyond China’s near-seas region. Observers of Chinese and U.S. military forces view China’s improving naval capabilities as posing a potential […]

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Gold that requires no panning: a methodological masterpiece from my CMSI colleague Ryan Martinson. Mandatory reading for all serious students of Chinese maritime strategy and Chinese-language open source scholarship!
Ryan D. Martinson, “Panning for Gold: Assessing Chinese Maritime Strategy from Primary Sources,” Naval War College Review 69.3 (Summer 2016): 23-44.
What are the drivers behind China’s vigorous […]

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Chinese officials are insulting foreign intelligence, likely in all senses of the word.
Xi Jinping’s visit in 2013 to Tanmen Township, and the designation of its Maritime Militia as a national model, has made this the leading unit for other seaports to emulate. Yet earlier this month, as the Al Jazeera article below documents, a local […]

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Thomas Storch, “Putting ‘Meat on the Bones’ of the U.S.-Japan Alliance Coordination Mechanism,” Sasakawa USA Forum, Issue 2, 1 June 2016.
U.S.-Japan alliance coordination has historically been hindered by structural challenges, such as the lack of a mutual defense pact or a joint operational command structure, as exist in both the U.S.-South Korea alliance and the […]

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Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 31 May 2016), RL33153.
Summary
China is building a modern and regionally powerful navy with a limited but growing capability for conducting operations beyond China’s near-seas region. Observers of Chinese and U.S. military forces view China’s improving naval capabilities as posing a potential […]

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Unquestionably a must-read article by a leading expert on a vital topic! Cogent, pithy, informative, and insightful.
Capt. Dale C. Rielage, USN, “Chinese Navy Trains and Takes Risks,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 142.5 (May 2016): 36-41.
Improvements in Chinese Navy multi-mission platforms have seen a focus on realistic training.
In the past decade, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army […]

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