[ Home | Taiwan | PRC | Cross-Strait | U.S. | Japan | Asia-Pacific | Papers | Comments | Media | Archives ]

 

 

 

~ 2000 ; 2001 ; 2002 ; 2003 ; 2004 ; 2005; 2006 ; 2007 ; 2008

 

Gulf of Aden and China’s Blue Water Navy

 

Documents

Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2009

White Paper: China’s National Defense in 2008
(Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Jan. 21, 2009) China is still confronted with long-term, complicated, and diverse security threats and challenges. Issues of existence security and development security, traditional security threats and non-traditional security threats, and domestic security and international security are interwoven and interactive.

 

[ News ] [ Papers ] 

China to Stage 50000-Troop Military Drill: Report
(Reuters, May 5, 2009) China's People's Liberation Army will hold a big training drill later this year to hone the modernizing force's skills in complex, high-tech warfare, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

U.S. Says Chinese Fishing Vessels Confront Navy Ship
(Reuters, May 5, 2009) Two Chinese fishing vessels confronted a U.S. Navy surveillance ship in the Yellow Sea, Pentagon officials said.

China Military Build-up Seems U.S.-Focused: Mullen
(Reuters, May 4, 2009) China's build-up of sea and air military power funded by a strong economy appears aimed at the United States, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

China Shows off Its Expanding, Modernizing Navy
(Reuters, Apr. 23, 2009) China celebrated its military confidence at sea, when anniversary celebrations for the founding of its navy climaxed with a show of the warships and submarines projecting its spreading power.

China’s Navy to Build New Ships, Planes
(AP, Apr. 16, 2009) China's navy will move faster to build large combat warships, next-generation aircraft and sophisticated torpedoes in a modernizing overhaul for fighting in an era of information technology, its commander in chief said.

China Launches 2nd Satellite in GPS System
(AP, Apr. 14, 2009) China fired into orbit its second satellite in a program to build an alternative to the global positioning system based on U.S. satellites.

China Says Domestic Armaments Are World-Class
(AP, Apr. 13, 2009) A government-backed science group says many of China's homemade weapons systems are world-class, reflecting the defense industry's new confidence and underscoring its ambitions of becoming a major arms exporter.

China Criticizes New US Report on Its Military
(AP, Mar. 26, 2009) China slammed a newly released U.S. report on Beijing's growing military power as a "gross distortion," saying Thursday that it could damage military relations between the two countries.

China Confirms It Will Build Aircraft Carrier: State Press
(AFP, Mar. 24, 2009) China will develop an aircraft carrier in line with its status as a major global power, state press reported National Defense Minister Liang Guanglie as saying.

China Military Trains First Public Relations Team
(AP, Mar. 20, 2009) China's military is training propaganda teams for the first time to explain its actions to the outside world, as the force engages more with other countries' militaries and deploys its ships and personnel abroad.

China Must Build Aircraft Carrier ‘Soon’ Military Says
(Telegraph, Mar. 6, 2009) China must build an aircraft carrier "soon" if it wants to be taken seriously as a global superpower, a Chinese military official has said.

China Says to Boost Defense Spending in 2009
(AP, Mar. 3, 2009) China announced plans to boost military spending by 14.9 percent this year, but noted that much of it was for salaries and said there was no need for other countries to be fearful.

China Increases Missiles Pointed at Taiwan to 1,500
(Reuters, Feb. 15, 2009) China has increased the number of short-range missiles aimed at Taiwan to about 1,500, officials and experts said, a sign of continued distrust between the two sides despite a recent warming of ties.

China Increases Submarine Patrols—Report
(AFP, Feb. 3, 2009) China nearly doubled the number of patrols by its fleet of attack submarines last year, surpassing Russia but still far behind the United States, the Federation of American Scientists reported.

Chinese Naval Force Protects Taiwanese Ship from Somalia Pirates (Bloomberg, Jan. 13, 2009) A Chinese naval task force began escorting a Taiwanese merchant ship and three other vessels in the Gulf of Aden in a mission to protect them from Somali pirates.

 

Chinese ASBM Development: Knowns and Unknowns By Andrew S. Erickson (China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Jun. 24, 2009) There have been many Western reports that China is developing an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) based on its CSS-5/DF-21D solid propellant medium-range ballistic missile.

China’s SSBN Forces: Transitioning to the Next Generation By Andrew S. Erickson and Michael S. Chase(China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Jun. 12, 2009) China’s undersea deterrent is undergoing a generational change with the emergence of the Jin-class, which represents a substantial improvement over China’s first-generation Xia-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.

China’s Contribution to UN Peacekeeping Grows By Nathan King
(VOA, May 30, 2009) China, a country that once criticized UN peacekeeping operations as interference with national sovereignty, is now a major troop contributor.

China Rejects US Criticism Over Military Strength By Tini Tran
(AP, May 6, 2009) China blamed the United States for the latest naval confrontation between the countries, after rejecting criticism by Washington that Beijing's rising military strength is focused on countering U.S power.

Chinese Carriers--Let Them Have Them By Tetsuo Kotani
(Asia Times, May 6, 2009) The day when China possesses carriers may not be far off. Although the international community shouldn't overreact, it is necessary to watch developments and respond.

Military Parades Demonstrate Chinese Concept of Deterrence By Dennis J. Blasko (China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Apr. 16, 2009) Unspoken by Beijing during the build up to this naval parade is the parade’s contribution to China’s military strategy. The role of military reviews and foreign visits is openly identified in PLA doctrine as an important component of China’s strategic deterrence posture.

China General Tells Troops Party Trumps State
(Reuters, Apr. 1, 2009) China's military must be loyal first and foremost to the ruling Communist Party rather than the state, a senior general wrote in a piece published in Party journal Seeking Truth, stressing politics even as the armed forces seek to modernize.

US Cries Chinese Wolf By David Isenberg
(Asia Times, Mar. 31, 2009) As a description of the ongoing development of China's military forces it is a reasonably informative document. But if it was supposed to be an alarm about the threat posed by Chinese military forces it failed badly.

China Accused Over Global Computer Spy Ring By Dan Glaister
(Guardian, Mar. 30, 2009) An enormous electronic espionage program run from servers in China has been used to spy on computers in more than 100 countries, according to two reports published at the weekend.

China’s Defense Tab Sharply Up, U.S. Says By Ann Scott Tyson
(Washington Post, Mar. 26, 2009) China's defense spending is far outpacing that of other nations in its region, and its aggressive development of ballistic and cruise missiles and attack submarines threatens to upset the balance of power in Asia and beyond, according to a Pentagon report released.

U.S. Sees Chinese Military Rise, and a Need for More Contact By Thom Shanker (New York Times, Mar. 26, 2009) China is seeking technology and weapons to disrupt the traditional advantages of American forces, and secrecy surrounding its military creates the potential for miscalculation on both sides, according to a Pentagon study released.

China’s Military After Taiwan By Ellis Joffe
(Far Eastern Economic Review, Mar. 18, 2009) The Taiwan crisis of 1995/96 convinced the Chinese that the U.S. would intervene if they attacked Taiwan and confronted them with a new and urgent strategic threat that became the impetus for a major force buildup and a focus for its direction.

The Future of Chinese Deterrence Strategy By Michael S. Chase, Andrew Erickson, and Christopher Yeaw (China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Mar. 4, 2009) China is moving toward a much more survivable and thus more credible, strategic nuclear posture with the development of the road-mobile DF-31 and DF-31A ICBMs and the JL-2 SLBM.

Asia: Target of PRC’s Carrier Plan By James Holmes
(Taipei Times, Feb. 10, 2009) Beijing likely intends its flattops not for a cataclysmic sea fight against the US Navy, but to coerce or deter lesser Asian powers, safeguard merchant shipping in vital sea areas and uphold maritime claims others find objectionable.

China’s 2008 Defense White Paper: The View from Taiwan By Cheng-yi Lin (China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Feb. 5, 2009) The White Paper explicitly said that China’s military capabilities will continue to grow even as the Taiwan issue thaws, verifying that a Chinese national security strategy looking beyond Taiwan is taking shape.

Backgrounder: China’s Military Power By Jayshree Bajoria
(New York Times, Feb. 5, 2009) Looking decades ahead, U.S. military planners clearly see the potential for China to develop as a "peer competitor."

China Spreads Its Peacekeepers By Bates Gill and Chin-Hao Huang
(Asia Times, Feb. 4, 2009) The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has increased its participation in a broadening array of multilateral security arrangements in recent years.

China Fears Containment As Defense Spending Rises By Ben Balnchard (Reuters, Jan. 19, 2009) China fears containment abroad and separatist groups at home, a defense policy paper said, justifying a drive to increase military spending and push the People's Liberation Army into a high-tech era.

China’s Modern Muscle on Parade By Antoaneta Bezlova
(Inter Press Service, Jan. 24, 2009) For a country which strives to reassure its neighbors about the peaceful intentions of its global ascendance, the celebrations for modern China's founding provide the ideal legitimate platform to showcase its expanding military strength.

New Advances in PLA Battlefield Aerospace and ISR By Martin Andrew (China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Jan. 22, 2009) A profound transformation is taking place in Chinese battlefield aerospace, the PLA’s informationalized battlefield program is assisting its armed forces in attaining information domination on the battlefield.

China’s Military Awaits New Satellites By Peter J. Brown
(Asia Times, Jan. 22, 2009) China wants to become the next big player in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology. China will complete its new Beidou 2 or "Compass" GNSS consisting of 30 more satellites before 2015.

Masked Motives in China’s Anti-Piracy Push By Bright B. Simons
(Asia Times, Jan. 15, 2009) A new lens is being trained on China's actions, one that is preset to reveal previously under-highlighted links to, above all, America's late but conclusive movement to the view of the Horn of Africa as a geostrategic shelf of the post-September 11, 2001, world.

Anti-Piracy Patrols Presage Rising Naval Powers By Brian Wilson and James Kraska (YaleGlobal, Jan. 14, 2009) The nations of China and India, and the member states of the EU, now join traditional maritime powers as naval forces with worldwide reach. Whether this expansion of blue water capability will be a positive force largely depends on the ability of this diverse group to coordinate and share the increasingly crowded littorals.

China Flaunts Growing Naval Capabilities By Willy Lam
(China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Jan. 12, 2009) The year 2009 is set to become a watershed in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) development into a force capable of long-distance, multi-pronged power projection.

China’s Gulf of Aden Expedition and Maritime Cooperation in East Asia By Mingjiang Li (China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Jan. 12, 2009) The Gulf of Aden is a much less sensitive region for China and thus serves as a perfect testing ground for the Chinese Navy.  It is still premature to expect China to strive for any leadership role in maritime affairs closer to home.

The New Game in India Waters By James Holmes
(Taipei Times, Jan. 12, 2009) Uneven responses to seaborne threats have shown that the sea services have some way to go to become an effective arm of Indian foreign policy. This open up opportunities for China to position itself as a custodian of maritime security in South Asia.

China Making Leaps in Space By Peter J. Brown
(Asia Times, Jan. 9, 2009) China ended 2008 with 11 successful launches, and set a new record for launches in a single year. China intends to set another new record this year.

China Starts Buying South African Arms By Andrei Chang
(UPI, Jan. 8, 2009) China has had a number of dealings with South African weapons manufacturers over the past decade, most of which have not resulted in actual weapons purchases. However, several recent Chinese-made military technologies bear suspicious resemblances to their South African counterparts.

China at Sea By Hugo Restall
(Wall Street Journal Asia, Jan. 6, 2009) Comments by China's national defense spokesman last month make it about as official as it's going to get: China's navy is in the market for an aircraft carrier. This is a sign that Beijing sees its ultimate prize within grasp: emergence as East Asia's preeminent great power.

China Sails into New World Order By Frank Ching
(Globe and Mail, Jan. 6, 2009) This week, three Chinese vessels join an international task force operating in the Gulf of Aden to protect shipping from attacks by Somali pirates, marking the first time since the 15th century that Chinese warships have sailed so far from home.