Andrew S. Erickson

Tamara Gil, “La poco conocida Milicia Marítima de China, la unidad de Pekín que ‘actúa bajo los radares’ para controlar las aguas de Asia Pacífico” [The Little-Known Maritime Militia of China, The Beijing Unit that ‘Acts Under the Radar’ to Control the Waters of the Asia-Pacific], BBC News Mundo [BBC News World], 23 August 2018.
[Algunos […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Exposed: Pentagon Report Spotlights China’s Maritime Militia,” The National Interest, 20 August 2018.

Republished as Andrew S. Erickson, “Exposed: Pentagon Report Spotlights China’s Maritime Militia,” The Maritime Executive, 27 August 2018.

For countering China’s shadowy Third Sea Force—the Maritime Militia—sunlight is the best disinfectant and demonstrated awareness is an important element of deterrence. This […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant: Pentagon Report Spotlights Shadowy Maritime Militia—China’s Third Sea Force,” China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国, 17 August 2018.
For countering China’s Third Sea Force, sunlight is the best disinfectant and demonstrated awareness is an important element of deterrence. This year’s Department of Defense report to Congress offers both.
Finally, […]

My take: While virtually unique and heretofore publicly obscure, China’s Maritime Militia is known clearly to the U.S. government, which monitors it closely.
A component of the People’s Armed Forces, it operates under a direct military chain of command to conduct state-sponsored activities. The PAFMM is locally-supported, but answers to the very top of China’s […]

Since I couldn’t find a single-source location on the Internet, I decided to make my own. Now you can download PDFs of the Department of Defense’s China reports directly by year:
2018 + Accompanying Fact Sheet
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
 
Additionally, here are some highlights from, and analysis of, several of the most recent reports:
 
2017
Andrew S. Erickson, “New Pentagon China Report Highlights the Rise […]

Click here to read the full text of the 2018 report and accompanying Fact Sheet.
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2018 (Arlington, VA: Department of Defense, 16 August 2018).

Huang Panyue, ed.; Bei Guo Fang Wu, “PLA Navy Ends Era of ‘Supply-Ship Troika’ in its Escort Mission,” China Military Online, 9 August 2018.
The 30th Chinese naval escort taskforce set sail on August 6 from a naval port in Qingdao of east China’s Shandong Province to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Armed Forces: Strong and Growing Stronger,” Harvard Fairbank Center Blog Post, 30 July 2018.
Andrew S. Erickson, Professor at the U.S. Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) and Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center, assesses how strong China’s armed forces are and why that matters.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A FULL-TEXT PDF.

How […]

Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress, RL33153 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 19 July 2018).

If you have trouble accessing the website above, please download a cached copy here.
Summary

The question of how the United States should respond to China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, is a key issue in […]

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, 17 July 2018).
If you have trouble accessing the website above, please download a cached copy here.
KEY EXCERPTS:
USE OF CHINA COAST GUARD SHIPS, MARITIME MILITIA, AND OIL PLATFORMS ………………………………………………………………………………………. 16
p. 16
Use of Coast Guard […]

China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), Coast Guard, and Government Maritime Forces 2018 Recognition and Identification Guide (Suitland, MD: Office of Naval Intelligence, July 2018).
Click here to download a cached copy.
Excerpt showing three types of Sansha City Maritime Militia vessels:

FT-16 WAG Qiong Sansha Yu 00000-00100- series numbers (60 meters)
FT-17 WAG Qiong Sansha Yu 00200-series numbers (60 meters)
FT-18 […]

The big news today at sea is that China has sent an auxiliary general intelligence (AGI) ship to spy on the RIMPAC 2018 international exercise off Hawaii, from which its navy was formally disinvited.
Below, I’m posting what has been publicly reported on this event thus far, together with detailed analysis of China’s well-documented history of dispatching […]

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 […]

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 […]

Andrew M. McGreevy; review of Andrew S. Erickson, ed., Chinese Naval Shipbuilding: An Ambitious and Uncertain Course (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2016); Education About Asia 23.1 (Spring 2018): 63-64.
The thesis of Chinese Naval Shipbuilding: An Ambitious and Uncertain Course is that the People’s Republic of China, since 2000, has become the world leader in commercial shipping and […]

Ronald O’Rourke, Maritime Territorial and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Disputes Involving China: Issues for Congress, R42784 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 24 May 2018).
If you have trouble accessing the website above, please download a cached copy here.
KEY EXCERPTS:
1972 CONVENTION ON PREVENTING COLLISIONS AT SEA (COLREGs)………………………………… 13
p. 13
1972 Convention on Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs)
China and the […]

Ronald O’Rourke,

China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress,

RL33153 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 21 May 2018).

If you have trouble accessing the website above, please download a cached copy here.
Summary

The question of how the United States should respond to China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, is a key […]

Military and Security Developments Involving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 2017 (Arlington, VA: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 22 May 2018).
Click here to download a cached PDF copy.
A Report to Congress Pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012
Section 1236 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, Public Law […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Revisiting the U.S.-Soviet Space Race: Comparing Two Systems in Their Competition to Land a Man on the Moon,” Acta Astronautica 148 (July 2018): 376-84.
Click here for complete information on this issue of the journal.
U.S. Naval War College, United States
John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, United States
Received 31 March 2018, Accepted 29 […]