The War Zone – A Chinese submarine now taking shape at Bohai Shipyard has a number of significant features and offers new insights into China’s undersea ambitions.

War on the Rocks – All states should come to terms with the fact that China’s survey operations east of Taiwan are either a prelude to war or to the slow strangulation of Taiwan’s separate status. China’s fleet of civilian vessels is, in essence, military assets at Beijing’s beck and call, and China increasingly uses its civilian fleet for military purposes, such as containerized missiles and amphibious lift. All states with an interest in peace and stability in East Asia have an interest in deterring China from using its research vessels to engage in military activities such as underwater sabotage, installing or employing fixed undersea sensors, or perhaps prepositioning sea mines. In fact, this applies globally. Beyond East Asia, China’s fleet of research vessels enables Beijing to conduct activities supporting military operations and political objectives anywhere in the world. Unless states recognize and respond to the political, legal, and military impact of their operations, Taiwan’s challenge today may be another country’s tomorrow.

Covert Shores – Hiding behind signs warning onlookers not to take photographs, a previously unreported stealth boat has been seen in at least two Chinese ports. The vessel has been in the water for some time but had evaded the attention of onlookers, until now.

Covert Shores – China is building a new form of drone mothership, one large enough and specially shaped and equipped, to carry drone submarines. The vessel is under construction at the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai.

CIMSEC – The evolution of the PLAN’s maritime medical platforms from the 1970s to the present day is a study in implementing a methodical and deliberate modernization strategy. From the complete absence of dedicated maritime medical capabilities in the Battle of the Paracels, the PLAN’s trajectory has taken it to makeshift adaptations in the 1990s and early 2000s, to a robust, layered network of twelve dedicated vessels today. This fleet looks set to be increasingly augmented by a growing PRC-built civilian capability, providing a blueprint for scaling up platforms as required . This diverse ecosystem provides the PLAN with a dependable maritime medical capacity for routine operations in the South China Sea; a dedicated capability to rapidly service large numbers of casualties in the event of a regional contingency close to the mainland (such as a Taiwan conflict scenario), as well as support PLAN ambitions to project maritime power around the world in the coming years.