China Maritime Studies Institute – In August 2025, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) conducted a large-scale exercise to simulate an invasion of Taiwan. This “capstone” amphibious exercise suggests that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) training and preparations for a future Taiwan campaign are becoming more focused, realistic, and sophisticated.

Center for Statecraft and Naval Security – The study finds that we are in a period of strategic warning time on Taiwan and that the risk of serious escalation around the Strait of Taiwan is a real possibility well within a ten‑year timeframe.

USNI News – Beijing’s newest and largest aircraft carrier is expected to achieve full operational readiness this year, Chinese state media reported when highlighting the rapid progress of the country’s carrier program and naval aviation developments.

ABC – A large torpedo-shaped device was found last week by a fisherman near an island in the Lombok Strait, a strategically important sea lane linking Australia to the South China Sea. It has been identified as a Chinese undersea monitoring system designed to be moored to an anchor on the sea floor while sending data home via communication buoys deployed to the surface.

(Thanks to Alain)

Covert Shores – This article aims to highlight the sheer scale and momentum of cargo UAV development in China.

Global Times – China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, will undergo a full transition from initial to full operational capability in 2026, with far-sea training expected, official media reported on Sunday. Chinese military affairs experts said that the Fujian has moved from construction to launch to commissioning at a fast pace, achieving operational capability in a very short time.

Breaking Defense – The Pentagon already closely tracks dual-use technology, but The Heritage Foundation’s Brent Sadler and Allen Zhang write in this op-ed that it’s past time to keep an eye on potential dual-use maritime infrastructure.

Covert Shores – An unusual device found by fishermen in Gili Trawangan, West Nusa, Tenggara in Indonesia is a Chinese moored underwater sensor. The waters where it was found is near the strategically important Lombok Strait, a natural chokepoint connecting the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Java Sea.

(Thanks to Alain)

The Bridge – A write up of this conference, by Dr. Erickson who is Professor of Strategy in the U.S. Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute. These are his personal views, based solely on open sources. 

CIMSEC – Part 2 of an interview with Hunter Stires. Hunter Stires, who served as the Maritime Strategist to the Secretary of the Navy during the tenure of Secretary Carlos Del Toro, views each of these challenges as interconnected parts of a global struggle for the Freedom of the Sea and the international order, with the central front in the South China Sea. Stires believes the future of global order rests on the extent to which China succeeds in claiming ownership to one of the world’s most important waterways and disrupting the centuries-old concept of the freedom of the seas upon which the modern global order was founded. Stires helped found the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Counterinsurgency (COIN) Project to better conceptualize and combat China’s battle to overturn the international order at sea. This interview captures Stires’ thoughts on the history of the Maritime COIN project and its ongoing relevance for intensifying strategic competition between the US and China.

Global Times – An official media report on Sunday disclosed multiple new developments regarding the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s Type 054B guided-missile frigate Qinzhou. The report highlighted one of its most distinctive features: a next-generation architecture powered by advanced AI algorithms, enabling near-zero blind spots in air defense. Experts say the Type 054B represents a major leap in integrated combat capability and positions the vessel among the most advanced frigates in service today.

Naval News – Super-sized hovercraft provide a rare and specialized capability that only a handful of navies can afford. China is the only nation investing in these massive platforms, pursuing series production of the Zubr-class vessels for amphibious assault operations. These offer key operational advantages and may signal a growing level of preparedness for a potential invasion of Taiwan.

CIMSEC – The international order has come under immense strain in recent years. Major wars have erupted between the great powers in Ukraine and the Middle East. The U.S.’s top geopolitical rivals have increasingly coalesced, with China and Russia both rapidly modernizing and expanding their arsenals of strategic weapons. Meanwhile, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan looms, possibly backed by Moscow. The current challenges make China’s years-old claims to the entirety of the South China Sea seem quaint and insignificant in comparison.

Hunter Stires, who served as the Maritime Strategist to the Secretary of the Navy during the tenure of Secretary Carlos Del Toro, views each of these challenges as interconnected parts of a global struggle for the Freedom of the Sea and the international order, with the central front in the South China Sea. Stires believes the future of global order rests on the extent to which China succeeds in claiming ownership to one of the world’s most important waterways and disrupting the centuries-old concept of the freedom of the seas upon which the modern global order was founded. Stires helped found the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Counterinsurgency (COIN) Project to better conceptualize and combat China’s battle to overturn the international order at sea. This interview captures Stires’ thoughts on the history of the Maritime COIN project and its ongoing relevance for intensifying strategic competition between the US and China.

Naval News – In the high-stakes world of submarine acquisition, true performance-first designs are exceedingly rare. The immense cost involved almost always forces trade-offs, shaping vessels around budget, strategy, and industrial constraints as much as pure capability. Until now the U.S. Navy’s Seawolf-class stood as the benchmark of an uncompromising approach to undersea warfare. Now, it appears that China’s latest nuclear-powered attack submarine, the Type 095 (also known as Type 09V), is built with a similarly ambitious philosophy.

Defense News – China is conducting a vast undersea mapping and monitoring operation across the Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, building detailed knowledge of marine conditions that naval experts say would be crucial for waging submarine warfare against the United States and its allies.

China Maritime Studies Institute – The concept of a maritime community with a shared destiny proposed by Chairman Xi is China’s wisdom and approach for maintaining global maritime peace, promoting ocean development, enhancing global maritime governance, and advancing maritime security cooperation. This should guide efforts to tailor security cooperation relationships based on different targets. We need to broaden our thinking and innovate mechanisms for maritime security cooperation, take proactive steps to provide maritime public security goods, strengthen coordinated implementation of external maritime military assistance, and promote the creation of a new landscape in maritime military security cooperation.

Andrew Erickson – Andrew S. Erickson, Statement for the Record for Hearing on “Part of Your World: U.S.-China Competition Under the Sea,” U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Washington, DC, 2 March 2026.

USNI News – Washington has determined that China does not plan to invade Taiwan in 2027, according to the U.S. intelligence community’s 2026 Annual Threat Assessment report published this week.

USNI News – Beijing’s naval forces received two new Type 055-class guided missile destroyers and have tasked them to operate under the command responsible for any potential operation against Taiwan, according to recent Chinese state media reports.

Center for Maritime Strategy – “Ports of Power” chronicles China’s meteoric
rise in the maritime domain over the last two decades. The study presents a cautionary tale of how a rising power that once yielded to American sea power is now able to flex its muscles outside the first and second island chains while simultaneously expanding its global reach. Unlike many other studies written on this topic, “Ports of Power” is not content to simply identify and admire the problem. Rather, this study o!ers solutions to mitigate the risk of a Chinese monopoly in maritime infrastructure around the world and a strategy to compete with Beijing in this domain.

Naval News – The Chinese Navy has taken into service two additional Type 903-series fleet replenishment oilers. Imagery circulating on social media service “X”, former Twitter, two weeks ago shows the two auxiliaries, also denoted as AOR, wearing their hull numbers, docked at a PLAN naval base. The Chinese Navy assigned pennant numbers 892 and 893 to the new oilers.

China Maritime Studies Institute – On 5 November 2025, the aircraft carrier Fujian (福建舰) was commissioned into People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN) service. One man was notably absent on this auspicious day—the PLAN Commander himself, Admiral (ADM) Hu Zhongming (胡中明), the leader CMSI profiled in CMSI Note 1.5 Instead, Vice Admiral (VADM) Cui Yuzhong (崔玉忠) was one of the PLAN’s senior representatives attending the ceremony. Cui’s high-profile appearance on the PLAN’s red-letter day may portend that Cui is slated to assume the highest PLAN billet.

Naval News – A photo circulating on social media service “X” (formerly Twitter) last week serves as an indication that the Chinese Navy (PLAN) is moving ahead with development of a new large naval gun for surface combatants. The photo shows one of PLAN’s Type 910 test and evaluation vessels docked at Liaonan shipyard south of Dalian in Liaoning province.

China Maritime Studies Institute – China’s merchant marine is a foundational economic and national security asset, supporting the country’s multi-decade growth and modernization and military logistics. Thus, Beijing views seafarers as a strategic resource and has prioritized development initiatives to strengthen the quality and quantity of the nation’s professional merchant marine.

China Maritime Studies Institute – In February 2025, a distant-ocean task force led by Chinese Navy Type 055 destroyer Zunyi made its first appearance in Australia’s near seas, conducting live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea. This action not only set a record for the Chinese Navy’s activities in the waters surrounding Australia, but also attracted widespread international attention due to its overwhelming technological superiority and strategic deterrence. This article will analyze the deeper significance of this action from the perspectives of task force composition, deployment process, technical performance, and geopolitical impact.