– Global Times – China’s second aircraft carrier successfully sailed through the Taiwan Straits on Sunday and headed toward a designated area in the South China Sea for testing and training. Experts said that the trip from Northeast China could be the last step in the trial phase of the warship, which is expected to enter naval service, possibly at a naval base in Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province.

– Global Times – The naval wing of the People’s Liberation Army conducted a drill using a civilian ship to supply warships, which is seen as a new approach to facilitate warship supplies in distant waters.

– USNI News – The rapid expansion of China’s Coast Guard gives Beijing the means to shift its sea expansion aims from aspirational to operational.

– South China Morning Post – China’s DF-17 hypersonic boost-glide missile may be powerful enough to penetrate US missile shields in the region, transforming Beijing’s previously defensive strategy of containing independence-leaning forces in the Taiwan Strait.

– National Interest – The Chinese are too clever to get stuck in the Middle East quicksand.

– National Interest – China hopes to get right what Imperial Japan got wrong.

– South China Morning Post – Rear Admiral Ma Weiming is seen as pioneer of electromagnetic aircraft launch system. Experts say Ma’s full membership of Central Committee shows how important sea power is to China’s strategic planning.

– National Interest – Anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles—latter-day counterparts to cannon fired from land—replicate this dynamic from the age of close-range gunnery. James Holmes asks what should the Navy do about it?

– South China Morning Post – The merger would enable China to establish a shipbuilding giant with a combined revenue up to 1 trillion yuan (US$141.5 billion), capable of building vessels ranging from warships, like aircraft carriers, to civilian ships such as container ships and oil tankers.

– National Interest – This edition of Dragon Eye seeks to sketch out the undersea warfare competition in the western Pacific in slightly greater detail, by discussing a new Chinese-language article about China’s new “undersea Great Wall” (水下长城) that appeared in a late 2015 edition of China Ocean News (中国海洋报).

– War on the Rocks – Andrew Erickson writes that to the extent that any nation has a grand strategy, China surely does.

– South China Morning Post – New satellite images show China is making fast progress on its third aircraft carrier and expanding the shipyard where it is being built – potentially for more huge ships, according to analysts.

– National Interest – James Holmes provides some possible answers.

– South China Morning Post – Country’s first home-grown carrier may soon be ready for service but observers warn a few glitches may still need to be ironed out.

– War Zone – China’s navalized version of its Black Hawk clone breaks cover. Its capability is badly needed within the growing People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet.

– Defense News – A debate on the future of aircraft carriers is roiling the U.S. Department of Defense, and it is increasingly spilling out into the open.

– National Interest – Many threats can hide beneath the sea.

– National Interest – S’pose China built a battleship. What would such a sea creature look like, and how would it fare in the bare-knuckles world of naval diplomacy and warfare? This is no mere flight of fancy.

– Global Times – China’s latest bomber, the H-6N with refueling capability, made its debut at the National Day parade in Beijing on Tuesday, and Chinese military analysts said that the new bomber’s ability to take aerial refueling can give it a much longer operational range compared to its predecessor H-6K.

– War Zone – The rear of the design on display during a parade to mark the 70th founding of Communist China is completely different from an earlier prototype.

– War Zone – The aircraft is designed to rapidly gather intel in contested areas by surprise and especially when key satellites are no longer operational.

– War Zone – The spectacle in Tiananmen Square was full of previously unseen advanced Chinese military developments.

– National Interest – Chinese naval strategists want to push the United States Navy as far away as possible.

– War Zone – China’s first flattop amphibious assault ship will give the PLAN powerful new capabilities and a second example is already under construction.

– War Zone – It’s not about the weapons such a drone can carry, it’s about the targeting data it can reliably supply to far more powerful and longer-range weapons.