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Andrew S. Erickson China's rapid development is reshaping the world in all dimensions. Chinese language open sources offer insights into these critical trends. While such materials are increasing constantly in number, diversity, and sophistication, only a fraction is available in English. The analyses available here, many based on sources not previously considered outside China, are designed to help bridge that gap--and thereby increase understanding of the most dynamic great power in the international system today.

21 November 2019

O’Rourke’s Latest Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report: “China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background & Issues for Congress”

This latest iteration of new streamlined version includes an updated table and discussion for busy readers seeking the latest on PLAN force structure development, plus some China Coast Guard ship numbers for good measure! 
Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress, RL33153 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 18 November 2019).

If you have trouble […]

16 November 2019

Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps: Key Policy Tool from Mao to Xi

The pathbreaking exposé of Xinjiang policy under Xi just published by Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley in The New York Times contains the following reference to a decades-old organization that continues to undergird PRC development and control of the long-repressed region:
“In the 2014 speeches, Mr. Xi had singled out southern Xinjiang as the front line […]

14 November 2019

The Indo-Pacific Strategy Report & its Implementation to Date: Highlights from Twin Documents

https://www.state.gov/a-free-and-open-indo-pacific-advancing-a-shared-vision/
A Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Advancing a Shared Vision (Washington, DC: Department of State, 4 November 2019).
Click here to download a cached copy.
 p. 4
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo:
President Donald J. Trump has made U.S. engagement in the Indo-Pacific region a top priority of his Administration. In November 2017 in Vietnam, he outlined a vision for a […]

14 November 2019

U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission Issues 2019 Report

2019 Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, One Hundred Sixteenth Congress, First Session, 14 November 2019.
Click here to read a cached copy of the full text.
Report PDFs
2019 Annual Report to Congress
2019 Executive Summary
2019 Recommendations to Congress

2019 in Review

Chapter 1 Section 1- Year in Review, Economics and Trade
Chapter 1 Section 2- Year […]

11 November 2019

Honored to furnish quotes for major PLA Navy feature by Shephard Asia-Pacific Editor Gordon Arthur in Naval Warfare International

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 […]

10 November 2019

Latest China Security Report from Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) Focuses on PRC Eurasian Activities. Access Complete Set of English/Japanese/Chinese Reports (from 2010 onward) Here.

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 […]

30 October 2019

Make China Great Again: Xi’s Truly Grand Strategy

Here I argue that that the People’s Republic of China under Xi has the grandest, most strategic vision of any great power today. Beijing’s strategy has a broadly-defined arc that Washington should address with its own strategy of pursuing “competitive coexistence” to safeguard American interests sustainably amid increasing PRC assertiveness.
Andrew S. Erickson, “Make China Great […]

28 October 2019

The China Maritime Militia Bookshelf: Complete with Latest U.S. Official Statements & My Fact Sheet + Recommendations

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 […]

26 October 2019

Commemorating 50th Anniversary of Moon Landing at International Astronautical Congress—Papers & Presentations on LM Program Director Joe Gavin

People often ask how I ended up pursuing the extremely fulfilling, and somewhat esoteric, career that I’m so fortunate to enjoy now. The two-word answer is: “Joe Gavin.” Best known as the Program Director for the Apollo Lunar Module that landed the first—and thus far only—twelve men on the moon, he also happened to be my grandfather. Hearing […]

16 October 2019

Newest Edition of O’Rourke’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report: “China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background & Issues for Congress”

This latest iteration of new streamlined version includes an updated table and discussion for busy readers seeking the latest on PLAN force structure development, plus some China Coast Guard ship numbers for good measure! 
Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress, RL33153 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2 October 2019).

If you have trouble […]

11 October 2019

The Hudson Institute’s Charles Horner Reviews “China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations”

Charles Horner; review of Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson, eds., China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2019); Naval War College Review 72.4 (2019): 176-77.
China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations, ed. Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2019. 352 pages. $50.
In its long history, China has deployed substantial naval […]

01 October 2019

China’s Massive Military Parade Shows Beijing is a Missile Superpower

Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Massive Military Parade Shows Beijing is a Missile Superpower,” The National Interest, 1 October 2019.
Washington is right to leave a missile-limiting treaty that Beijing won’t even consider joining.

Reprinted as:

Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Missile Program Is Deadly Serious—And America Must Respond,” The National Interest, 19 November 2019.
Key point: America couldn’t stay in […]

01 October 2019

China’s Massive 70th Anniversary Military (Missile) Parade: Here’s My Take

China’s Massive 70th Anniversary Military (Missile) Parade: Here’s My Take
Andrew S. Erickson
Paramount leader Xi Jinping just presided over the largest, most impressive military parade in the history of the world. The occasion: to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which just exceeded the Soviet Union’s lifespan by one year. The […]

27 September 2019

Japan MoD Releases White Paper: Defense of Japan 2019—Mentions China Maritime Militia for 3rd Year Running

Defense of Japan 2019 (Tokyo: Ministry of Defense, September 2019).
Click here to download full text.
 
p. 67
It is pointed out that, among the militia, whose status is China’s armed force other than the military, the so-called maritime militia is playing the role of the front guard for supporting China’s maritime interests.37 The maritime militia is said […]

26 September 2019

The China Maritime Militia Bookshelf: Complete With Fact Sheet & Latest Recommendations

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 […]

26 September 2019

“U.S.-China Strategic Competition in South and East China Seas: Background and Issues for Congress”—Latest Edition of O’Rourke’s CRS Report Has New Content on CCG, PAFMM

Ronald O’Rourke, U.S.-China Strategic Competition in South and East China Seas: Implications for U.S. Interests—Background and Issues for Congress, R42784 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 24 September 2019).
If you have trouble accessing the website above, please download a cached copy here.
You can also click here to access the report via the new public CRS website.
 
KEY EXCERPTS:
USE OF CHINA COAST GUARD […]

25 September 2019

Latest Edition of O’Rourke’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report: “China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background & Issues for Congress”

New streamlined version with updated table and discussion for busy readers seeking the latest on PLAN force structure development, plus some China Coast Guard ship numbers for good measure! 
Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress, RL33153 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 24 September 2019).

If you have trouble accessing the website above, please download […]

18 September 2019

American Mandarin Society Issues Updated Syllabi on China’s Military, Foreign Policy, Politics & Party, Economy, and Environment & Energy

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 […]

04 September 2019

Japanese-Language Version of Article on China & the INF Treaty Published in Foreign Affairs Report (フォーリン・アフェアーズ・リポート): “中国ミサイル戦力の脅威 ―― INF条約後の米アジア戦略”

アンドリュー・S・エリクソン [Andrew S. Erickson], 米海軍大学教授(戦略学)、ハーバード大学フェアバンクセンターの客員スカラー [Professor of Strategy, U.S. Naval War College and Visiting Scholar, Fairbank Center, Harvard University], “中国ミサイル戦力の脅威―― INF条約後の米アジア戦略” [Good Riddance to the INF Treaty: Washington Shouldn’t Tie Its Own Hands in Asia], フォーリン・アフェアーズ・リポート [Foreign Affairs Report], 4 September 2019.
中国ミサイル戦力の脅威
―― INF条約後の米アジア戦略
アンドリュー・S・エリクソン 米海軍大学戦略教授
Good Riddance to the INF Treaty Washington Shouldn’t Tie Its Own Hands in Asia
Andrew S. Erickson 米海軍大学教授(戦略学)。現在は、ハーバード大学フェアバンクセンターの客員スカラー。最近の著書にChinese Anti-Ship […]