Andrew S. Erickson

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, 30 August 2019).

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

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 […]

I’m honored to have my research and publications cited in the following Wikipedia entries:
 
AIRCRAFT & AEROENGINES (CHINESE)
Chengdu J-20
Shenyang J-15
Shenyang WS-10
 
MISSILES (CHINESE)
Anti-ship ballistic missile
C-101
C-801 anti-ship missile
CJ-10 (missile)
DF-21
P-270 Moskit
PL-12
YJ-12
YJ-18
YJ-62
YJ-82
YJ-83
 
SUBMARINES (CHINESE)
People’s Liberation Army Navy Submarine Force
Nuclear submarine
Peng Pai
Peng Shilu
Huang Xuhua
Type 091 submarine
Type 092 submarine
Shang-class submarine
Type 095 submarine
 
WARSHIPS (CHINESE)
Chinese cruiser Zhiyuan
Type 056 corvette
 
DIEGO GARCIA
Diego Garcia
Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
 
OTHER
China Coast […]

Ronald O’Rourke, China’s Actions in South and East China Seas: Implications for U.S. Interests—Background and Issues for Congress, R42784 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 23 August 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 SHIPS […]

Andrew S. Erickson; review of M. Taylor Fravel, Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since 1949 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019); Journal of Chinese Political Science 24.4 (December 2019): 701-02. (Online 30 August 2019).
Click here to access the full text of the review online.
The print version of the review is available here.
Just in time for the 70th anniversary […]

Here I argue that Washington is right to leave the missile-limiting INF Treaty, which Beijing won’t even consider joining, and suggest what this can help the United States to achieve moving forward.
Andrew S. Erickson, “Good Riddance to the INF Treaty: Washington Shouldn’t Tie Its Own Hands in Asia,” Foreign Affairs, 29 August 2019.
In early August, […]

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 […]

This article examines American bilateral military relations with China in the present context and offers policy recommendations. I propose a four-fold approach that is (1) clear and cogently communicated, (2) conditional and credible, (3) comprehensive, and (4) consistent. The U.S. should emphasize equitable reciprocity and pursue a transactional approach that recognizes that progress can occur […]

Here I offer an assessment of China’s 2019 Defense White Paper and its implications.
Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Defense White Paper Means Only One Thing: Trouble Ahead,” The National Interest, 29 July 2019.
Observers should look elsewhere for the latest insights on the specifics of PLA development, but no one should miss the ambition, assertiveness, and resolve permeating […]

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 […]

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, […]

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, […]

Since I couldn’t find a single-source location on the Internet, and various official PRC websites have deactivated some of the previous links, I decided to make my own. Now you can download cached PDFs of all China’s Defense White Papers directly by year!
Except for the 2019 edition, which is accessible here; and the 2015 edition, […]

As we reach the historic 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing on July 20, it’s a fleeting opportunity to recognize all who made it possible while direct human connections and memories still exist. Among the many contributors, please spare a thought for Joe Gavin, the Lunar Module (LM) Program Director. Gavin consistently avoided the limelight, and never […]

Lt. Mitchell Vines, Royal Australian Navy; review of Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson, eds., China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2019); The Australian Naval Institute, 14 July 2019.
The latest combined effort by Erickson and Martinson, China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations, arrives on the heels of the Naval War College’s 2017 China Maritime Studies Institute […]

Conrad Waters; review of Andrew S. Erickson, ed., Chinese Naval Shipbuilding: An Ambitious and Uncertain Course (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2016); “Naval Books of the Year,” Warship 2019 (UK: Osprey), 203-04.
Hardback, 376 pages, 35 maps, plans & tables; price US$39.95. ISBN 978-1-68247-081-7
This is the sixth in a series of books examining current Chinese naval capabilities jointly […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “China,” in Thierry Balzacq, Peter Dombrowski, and Simon Reich, eds., Comparative Grand Strategy: A Framework and Cases (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019), 73-98.
CHAPTER         VOLUME INFORMATION
Abstract:
Scholars still debate the very notion of a Chinese grand strategy. Nonetheless, recent leadership and policy statements, and their explicit linkage to historical patterns of […]

Report to Congress: Department of Defense Arctic Strategy (Arlington, VA: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, June 2019).
Click here to download a cached copy.
DoD’s desired end-state for the Arctic is a secure and stable region in which U.S. national security interests are safeguarded, the U.S. homeland is defended, and nations work cooperatively to […]

Andrew S. Erickson and Gabriel B. Collins, “China’s Rare Earth Dominance: How Usable a Weapon?” The National Interest, 6 June 2019.
It could provoke a response from Washington that Beijing does not want to see.
As Washington and Beijing brace for a protracted trade war, Chinese sources increasingly discuss the potential for weaponizing the Middle Kingdom’s major mineral advantage: […]