Andrew S. Erickson

Megan Eckstein, “Experts Advocate Harder Stance Against Illegal Claims in South China Sea,” U.S. Naval Institute News, 22 September 2016.
… The experts from the U.S. Naval War College and the Center for Strategic and International Studies agreed at a House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee hearing yesterday that adherence to maritime law in […]

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Christopher P. Cavas, “China’s Maritime Militia—Time to Call them Out?” Defense News, 18 September 2016.
… “China’s maritime militia is only as deniable for China as we allow it to be, and we don’t have to allow it to be deniable,” said Andrew Erickson, a professor of strategy at the US Naval War College, where he […]

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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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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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“International Tribunal to Rule on South China Sea Case,” interviewed by Anthony Kuhn, Morning Edition, National Public Radio, 11 July 2016.
Click here to listen to the program.
A decision in the case is expected on Tuesday. The Philippines challenged China’s claims to most of the South China Sea, through which about a 5th of the world’s […]

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“Episode 340: China’s Maritime Militia with Andrew Erickson,” Live Interview on Midrats Radio Program, Blog Talk Radio, 10 July 2016.
Click here to listen to the complete podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, you may wish to scroll down through the Complete Maritime Militia Compendium appended below. Just want something specific? No problem! Everything is on one […]

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“China’s Third Sea Force—the Maritime Militia,” interviewed on “‘Farce’ Says China, in the South China Sea” program, The John Batchelor Show, 77 WABC Radio New York, 7:30 p.m. EST, 6 July 2016.
Click here for webcast, and listen to minutes 30:40-39:33.
 

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF CHINA’S MARITIME MILITIA:

Tracking China’s “Little Blue Men”—A Comprehensive Maritime Militia Compendium

Rarely is a […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, Interviewed by Eleanor Hall, “Tensions between China and U.S. Intensify over South China Sea,” The World Today Program, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), 29 June 2016.
Click here to listen to both key interview highlights (MP3 Download) and the full-length interview (Extra Audio).
The World Today is Australia’s leading midday current affairs radio program, broadcast across […]

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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

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John Sudworth, “South China Sea: The Mystery of Missing Books and Maritime Claims,” BBC News, 19 June 2016.
If you want to understand the way China really feels about its controversial claim to huge swathes of the sea off its southern shore, then the island of Hainan is a good place to start.
This is a place […]

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Simon Denyer, “How China’s Fishermen Are Fighting a Covert War in the South China Sea,” Washington Post, 12 April 2016.
TANMEN, China — In the disputed waters of the South China Sea, fishermen are the wild card.
China is using its vast fishing fleet as the advance guard to press its expansive territorial claims in the South China […]

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Sam LaGrone, “China Defends Deployment of Anti-Ship Missiles to South China Sea Island,” USNI News, 30 March 2016.
… Last month, news broke that China had deployed several HQ-9 anti-air missiles batteries to Woody Island after the U.S. conducted a freedom of navigation operation (FON op) near Chinese holdings at nearby Triton Island. …
“While the HQ-9 deployment was a […]

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A modern mobile strategic SAM system, the 100-km-range HQ-9 is similar to Russia’s S-300PMU. Based on the information available, and resemblance to satellite imagery of an HQ-9 production facility near Beijing, it appears that China indeed moved two firing batteries of four launchers each to Woody Island within the past several weeks.

Please note: the HQ-9 […]

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Christopher P. Cavas, “Powers Jockey for Pacific Island Chain Influence,” Interview of Andrew S. Erickson, Defense News, 1 February 2016.

Pacific Island Chains Measure Regional Influence
WASHINGTON — The extensive chains of Pacific islands ringing China have been described as a wall, a barrier to be breached by an attacker or strengthened by a defender. They are seen […]

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Te-Ping Chen, “China Lands Test Flight in Disputed Island Chain,” Wall Street Journal, 2 January 2016.
Vietnam was quick to protest the flight to new airfield in the South China Sea’s Spratlys
BEIJING—China said it had landed a test flight on a newly completed airfield in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a sign of its […]

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Christopher P. Cavas, “China’s ‘Little Blue Men’ Take Navy’s Place in Disputes,” Defense News, 2 November 2015.
China using maritime militia to carry out its dirty work in seagoing confrontations
WASHINGTON — When the US destroyer Lassen passed near a newly-built artificial island on Subi Reef in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands Oct. 27, it was already being […]

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Elizabeth Shim, “China Scolds U.S. for South China Sea ‘Provocation’,” UPI, 27 October 2015.
Beijing said that its navy had deployed two vessels: Lanzhou, a missile destroyer and Taizhou, a patrol boat, to warn the U.S. ship away from waters claimed by China. …
The United States’ dispatch of the USS Lassen had been planned weeks in […]

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Jeremy Page and Chun Han Wong, “U.S. Warship’s Patrol Escalates Dispute Over Islands in South China Sea,” Wall Street Journal, 27 October 2015.
U.S. officials say operation was first of several to assert ‘freedom of navigation’ around the Spratly islands
A U.S. navy patrol off China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea was the strongest challenge yet […]

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