Andrew S. Erickson

Andrew S. Erickson, “Tracking China’s ‘Little Blue Men’—A Comprehensive Maritime Militia Compendium,” China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国, 1 November 2020.

As Coronavirus rages on, fishy things have been happening across the South and East China Seas, home to virtually all of China’s unresolved maritime disputes… Since Beijing remains far from being fully forthcoming and transparent, it is to be […]

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Ryan Pickrell, “China is the World’s Biggest Shipbuilder, And its Ability to Rapidly Produce New Warships Would Be a ‘Huge Advantage’ in a Long Fight with the US, Experts Say,” Business Insider, 8 September 2020.
China could build up its fleet or rapidly replace losses in a conflict, much as the US was able to do […]

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Gordon Arthur, “Eclipsing the Competition,” Naval Warfare International 2.6 (November/December 2019): 9-13.
“Regarding the modernisation of China’s navy, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in April, Andrew Erickson, professor of strategy at the US Naval War College, told Shephard: ‘Chinese naval development enjoys top-level support, starting with [President] Xi himself. China has the world’s largest shipbuilding […]

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My further thoughts, including some not quoted in this article: 
Russia wouldn’t fully honor INF. China wouldn’t join INF. Unilateral constraint was a losing proposition: China developed the world’s foremost force of missiles precisely within the ranges that INF would prohibit. So this increasingly antiquated treaty had no future.

One post-INF option for the U.S. is to […]

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Jeremy Page, “China Promises Further Military Cooperation With Russia,” The Wall Street Journal, 24 July 2019.
Beijing accuses U.S. of undermining regional stability and sharpens its warnings against Taiwan in new defense report
BEIJING—China vowed to step up military cooperation with Russia, a day after the two countries’ first joint air patrol triggered a rare confrontation over the Sea […]

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Gerry Shih, “China Takes Aim at U.S., Taiwan in Military Blueprint,” The Washington Post, 24 July 2019.
BEIJING — China sharpened its hostility toward the United States and Taiwan in a new high-level report on its future military strategy that accused Washington and its allies of undermining global stability. …
“If anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, […]

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“Analysis: Will China and America Go to War?” BBC, 31 March 2019.
Honored to speak on Chinese naval shipbuilding from 05:48-07:35!
Will the growing competition between China and the United States inevitably lead to military conflict? One leading American academic created huge attention when in 2017 he posed the idea of what he called a “Thucydides […]

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Banyan, “China has Militarised the South China Sea and Got Away with it,” The Economist, 21 June 2018.
It is not clear what the “consequences” are that America has promised
LESS than three years ago, Xi Jinping stood with Barack Obama in the Rose Garden at the White House and lied through his teeth. In response to […]

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“Making Mischief: China Has Put Missiles on Islands in the South China Sea,” The Economist, 10 May 2018.
AN AMERICAN admiral slipped a startling admission into testimony submitted to the Senate last month. After almost five years of dredging and fortifying reefs in the disputed Spratly Islands, lying between the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, “China is […]

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“China’s Maritime Militia: A Conversation with Andrew Erickson,” podcast interview with Bonnie Glaser, ChinaPower Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, 26 October 2017.
Click here to listen to the half-hour-long podcast.
In this episode, Professor Andrew Erickson joins us to discuss the origin and role of China’s maritime militia. Our conversation traces the history […]

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Associated Press, “China Navy Ships Depart for Joint Drills with Russia,” Washington Post, 14 September 2017.
BEIJING — Four Chinese navy ships have departed for joint drills with Russia in the latest sign of growing cooperation between the two militaries that could challenge the U.S. armed forces’ role in the Asia-Pacific.
A destroyer, missile frigate, supply ship […]

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“China Maritime Studies Institute Faculty Brings China’s Maritime Militia Out of the Shadows,” The Beacon: U.S. Naval War College Newsletter 1.3 (August 2017): 14.
As part of an intensive multi-year project, Professor Andrew Erickson and Research Associate Conor Kennedy of the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) have illuminated China’s use of a Maritime Militia to overpower […]

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Jeremy Page, “China Parades New Missile in Warning to Rivals Abroad—and at Home,” Wall Street Journal, 30 July 2017.
Military display is latest effort by President Xi Jinping to improve standing as party leadership shuffle looms
China unveiled a new, more mobile intercontinental ballistic missile at a parade of advanced weaponry and combat troops, in President Xi […]

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Josh Chin, “China Attacks Pentagon Report, Laments U.S. ‘Cold War Mentality’,” Wall Street Journal, 7 June 2017.
Beijing dismisses Defense Department warning about Chinese military’s ambitions outside Asia
… The Pentagon report… for the first time examined China’s “maritime militia,” a growing civilian fleet staffed by military-trained fishermen that Beijing uses for “low-intensity coercion” in defending its […]

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Ryan Pickrell, “China’s Naval Power Gets Big Boost with Launch of First Home-Grown Aircraft Carrier,” Daily Caller, 26 April 2017.
China’s carriers are no match for U.S. carriers, but they offer China the kind of power projection capabilities that its neighbors in Asia lack. It is a symbol of power. …
“China’s shipbuilding industry is poised to […]

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Sam LaGrone, “VIDEO: China Launches First Domestic Aircraft Carrier,” USNI News, 26 April 2017.
…  China is thought to have already begun construction on its second domestic carrier – Type-002 — at the Jiangnan Changxingdao shipyard near Shanghai. 
Unlike the new Type-001A and Liaoning, the new carrier is expected to field a catapult launching system allowing a wider variety […]

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Chris Buckley, “China Launches Its First Aircraft Carrier Built at Home,” New York Times, 25 April 2017.
BEIJING — China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier slipped into the sea for the first time on Wednesday, … a milestone in President Xi Jinping’s drive to extend China’s military reach far beyond its shores.
Senior military and government officials watched as […]

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Jeremy Page, “China Launches First Home Built Aircraft Carrier, Boosting Naval Power,” Wall Street Journal, 26 April 2017.
Beijing’s second carrier will undergo two years of trials before becoming operational
BEIJING—China launched its second aircraft carrier—and the first one entirely home-built—taking another stride in its quest for a world-class navy that can protect Chinese economic and security interests […]

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My personal take: As defense spending remains hotly debated in capitals across the West, China continues the concerted multi-decade investment that has already given it what is undisputedly the world’s second-largest defense budget. China’s rate of growth in military spending remains among the highest of any country. This spending comes atop the second highest defense budget […]

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