– Defense News – The Chinese shipbuilder China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Company is developing a small unmanned surface vessel that China wants to function essentially like the uninhabited baby brother of a U.S. Arleigh Burke destroyer.

– CIMSEC – Every year, about this time, the leaders of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) send their regards to Chinese sailors deployed overseas during the Lunar New Year. This annual ritual tells the story of China’s emergence as a global naval power.

– South China Morning Post – The United States is expected to take more planned and pre-emptive measures in response to China’s “grey zone tactics” in the Asia-Pacific region, according to analysts from the US and Australia.

– South China Morning Post – China has been accused of sending a fleet of almost 100 ships to hamper Philippine construction work on a disputed island in the South China Sea.

– Global Times – Close-up details of the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile DF-26 show that the missile can greatly adjust its position mid-flight to accurately attack a moving aircraft carrier, experts said Sunday after China showed the launch of its new-generation missile for the first time.

– Naval History – The U.S. Navy should arm itself with China’s naval history to better fight future battles, both political and kinetic.

– CIMSEC – With the fifth anniversary of the HYSY 981 standoff on the horizon, reexamining it in the context of China’s civil-military fusion concept reveals Beijing’s strategic thinking on the role China’s merchant marine could play in future conflict.

– National Interest – Chinese trawlers are not the pointy tip of “Chinese maritime expansion,” but do present a genuine environmental challenge to the global community.

– DIA – The latest volume in the DIA’s Military Power series, a product that examines the core capabilities of China’s military.

– CIMSEC – In recent years, China has been building ships rapidly across the waterfront. Chinese sources liken this to “dumping dumplings into soup broth.” Now, Beijing is really getting its ships together in both quantity and quality. The world’s largest commercial shipbuilder, it also constructs increasingly sophisticated models of all types of naval ships and weapons systems. What made this possible, and what does it mean?

– National Interest – Could China sink a couple of U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and stun the United States into abandoning the Western Pacific?

– Washington Free Beacon – China has mobilized nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles in response to the passage of a Navy warship near disputed islands in the South China Sea this week.

– War on the Rocks – Is it possible that China, far from its recent reputation for assertiveness, is in fact a remarkably stable and reticent actor on the world stage? Is there any way that the United States can counteract China’s growing influence on international institutions? Should the United States extend security guarantees to countries like Vietnam? Lyle Goldstein discusses these issues and many more.

– Army Times – Another Beijing official has sounded off about the communist nation’s perceived dominance of the South China Sea region, this time coming as an alarming threat of inflicting mass casualties on the U.S. Navy.

– War Zone – With the largest submarine force on Earth, the Chinese increasingly need long-range communications options that don’t require the boats to surface.

– US Naval War College Review – Low-level instability is to be expected with maritime boundary disputes or when power competition occurs at sea; however, sustained escalatory cycles are unlikely because of the characteristics of the maritime strategic environment.

– US Naval War College Review – China’s extensive island-building projects in the Spratly Islands, the aggressive harassment tactics of its maritime law-enforcement and paramilitary fleets, and its rejection of binding arbitration rulings on both those activities threaten the rules-based international order and pose political, economic, and potentially military threats to U.S. interests in the region.

– War Zone – It’s now in the hands of the Vietnamese military and they will likely pick it apart for any intelligence value.

– Washington Free Beacon – China carried out a flight test of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile last month that will carry multiple nuclear warheads capable of targeting most of the United States.

– National Interest – Beijing is setting up a new aircraft unit that will be crucial to its new southern bastion.

– National Interest – Toshi Yoshihara and James Holmes present the second edition of their important work on this timely topic.

– Global Times – The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy will operate at least five aircraft carriers in the near future, including the country’s first two nuclear-powered ones that would likely be launched around 2025, Chinese military experts predicted on Wednesday.

– USNI Blog – We are blessed as much as others are challenged…

– Global Times – China’s third aircraft carrier is now under construction, the Xinhua News Agency said via its WeChat public account on early Sunday, with Chinese military experts saying on Monday that the warship is expected to be launched in two and a half years.

– Defense One – Western observers have likely underestimated the number of Chinese nuclear submarines in development, but overestimated how many are operational, a new analysis suggests.