Andrew S. Erickson

The 2011 ROC National Defense Report has confirmed that “a small quantity of” DF-21D ASBMs “were produced and deployed in 2010,” thereby (in the report’s view) “increasing the difficulty of military maneuvers in the region for the U.S. Army.”
Now a key question remains: what are the missile’s specific capabilities? Unfortunately, open sources do not yet […]

Andrew S. Erickson and Gabriel B. Collins, “China’s 2012 Challenges,” The Diplomat, 8 January 2012.
China enters the New Year confronting challenges and opportunities that will be shaped in turn by how its government and populace respond to them. Here outlined are twelve key items and issues that will help define 2012 for China, both at […]

David C. Gompert and Phillip C. Saunders, Paradox of Power: Sino-American Strategic Restraint in an Age of Vulnerability (Washington, DC: National Defense University, December 2011).
Excerpt from the Executive Summary:
The United States and China each have or will soon have the ability to inflict grave harm upon the other by nuclear attack, attacks on satellites, or […]

Phillip C. Saunders and Joshua K. Wiseman, Buy, Build, or Steal: China’s Quest for Advanced Military Aviation Technologies, China Strategic Perspectives 4 (Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press, December 2011).
Executive Summary
Although China continues to lag approximately two decades behind the world’s most sophisticated air forces in terms of its ability to develop and produce fighter […]

Third Summer Training Workshop on the Relationship Between National Security and Technology in China
July 9-20, 2012
This two-week workshop examines the relationship between national security, technology, innovation, and China’s rise as a world power. Of central interest is how China is mobilizing and applying its economic, political, strategic, corporate, financial, intellectual, and scientific capabilities in conjunction […]

This provocative article offers a useful corrective for overly-declinist views of America’s trajectory in the international system, which have been quite fashionable of late in certain quarters.
Michael Beckley, “China’s Century? Why America’s Edge Will Endure,” International Security, 36/3 (Winter 2011/12): 41-78.
Two assumptions dominate current foreign policy debates in the United States and China. First, the […]

Ronald O’Rourke, “China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress,” RL33153, Congressional Research Service, 30 November 2011.
The question of how the United States should respond to China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has emerged as a key issue in U.S. defense planning. Admiral Michael Mullen, then-Chairman of the […]

Thomas P.M. Barnett, “The New Rules: Worried by China’s Rise? Watch Out for its Decline,” World Politics Review, 19 December 2011.
… Having already sounded my own note of pessimism earlier this year regarding the rampant predictions of China’s never-ending linear growth, it is worth revisiting an excellent blog post from August by China Signpost’s Gabe […]

Gabriel B. Collins and Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Growing Meat Consumption is Driving Corn Imports and Creating a New Strategic Dependency,” China SignPost™ (洞察中国) 51 (2 January 2012).
China SignPost™ 洞察中国–“Clear, high-impact China analysis.”©
China will likely import 3.0 million tonnes of corn in the 2011/12 market year, more than triple the amount it took in 2010/11 (USDA).  As Chinese consumers […]

Edward Wong and Kenneth Chang, “Space Plan From China Broadens Challenge to U.S.,” New York Times, 29 December 2011.
Broadening its challenge to the United States, the Chinese government on Thursday announced an ambitious five-year plan for space exploration that could establish China as a major rival at a time when the American program is in retreat. …
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Katherine Duke, “Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roles,” “Short Takes,” Amherst Magazine (Fall 2011): 46.
Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roles
Edited by Andrew S. Erickson ’01 and Lyle J. Goldstein (China Maritime Studies Institute and the Naval Institute Press)
The fifth book in the series “Studies in Chinese Maritime Development,” this volume evaluates the advances […]

David Axe, “Your Move, Beijing: Big Year Ahead for Chinese Navy,” AOL Defense, 23 December 2011.
… As part of its 11th five-year military plan beginning in 2006, China has: commissioned dozens of new frigates, destroyers, submarines and amphibious ships; begun sea trials of the country’s first aircraft carrier, the former Soviet Varyag; deployed ships overseas for the […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Through the Lens of Distance: Understanding and Responding to China’s ‘Ripples of Capability’,” Changing Military Dynamics In East Asia Policy Brief 3.9 (January 2012), Project on the Study of Innovation and Technology in China, University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
Several pronounced trends are emerging as the United States moves […]

Another must-read for those who still haven’t read it. Sadly, these issues have not gone away…
Gabriel B. Collins and William S. Murray, “No Oil for the Lamps of China?” Naval War College Review, 61.2 (Spring 2008): 79–95.
The ubiquitous Made in China stickers and labels on consumer products remind us daily of China’s incredible economic rise. The […]

This path-breaking and thought-provoking article, which has already had significant analytical and policy influence, remains as relevant today as when it was published—despite some encouraging developments in cross-Strait relations. I commend it to anyone interested in these important and difficult issues. It merits a very careful read.
William S. Murray, “Revisiting Taiwan’s Defense Strategy,” Naval War […]

John Reed, “Photos Show China’s Carrier Steaming Under Own Power,” Defense Tech, 14 December 2011.
Here’s something we haven’t seen before. China’s first aircraft carrier, the ex-Soviet Varyag, steaming under its own power in the open seas. This satellite photo was taken by the group Digital Globe during the ship’s nearly two week-long cruise that ended […]

Presented on “China’s Place in the World–Increasingly Assertive?” panel, “The ‘Chinese Century’: Promises. Pitfalls. Presumption?” China Summit conference, sponsored by The Economist, 18 November 2011, Sofitel Wanda Beijing.
Many observers say the 21st century belongs to China. But with political, macroeconomic and social stability concerns looming in the next few years, many questions abound. Where is […]

Andrew S. Erickson and Michael S. Chase, “Informatization and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy,” in Phillip C. Saunders, Christopher Yung, Michael Swaine, and Andrew Nien-dzu Yang, eds., The Chinese Navy: Expanding Capabilities, Evolving Roles (Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, 2011), 247-86.
No […]

Navy looks at offer from Seychelles
Updated: 2011-12-13 06:53
By Li Xiaokun and Li Lianxing (China Daily)
BEIJING – The navy is considering taking on supplies in the Seychelles while conducting escort missions to tackle piracy.
Military experts stressed that the move did not equate to establishing military bases.
“According to escort needs and the needs of other long-range missions, […]