– Washington Times – China has begun patrols with nuclear missile submarines for the first time, giving Beijing a new strategic nuclear strike capability, according to the U.S. Strategic Command and Defense Intelligence Agency. U.S. intelligence and strategic nuclear officials, however, remain uncertain whether China’s four Jin-class missile submarine patrols are being carried out with nuclear-tipped JL-2 missiles on board.

– Washington Free Beacon – What the US is learning using open source intelligence on the Chinese military.

– Washington Free Beacon – China recently conducted a flight test of a new missile capable of knocking out U.S. satellites as part of Beijing’s growing space warfare arsenal.

– Stars and Stripes – China will likely ramp up its efforts to expand and militarize disputed islands in the South China Sea — an area critical to the global economy — as a result of the U.S. Navy’s more assertive patrols in the region, China experts say.

– CIMSEC – The following is the first in a five-part series meant to shed light on Hainan Province’s maritime militia. For decades, these irregular forces have been an important element of Chinese maritime force structure and operations. Now, with Beijing increasing its capabilities, presence, and pushback against other nations’ activities, in the South China Sea (SCS), Hainan’s leading maritime militia elements are poised to become even more significant. Yet they remain widely under-appreciated and misunderstood by foreign observers.

– The Diplomat – A closer look at the specific military concerns posed by China’s artificial islands.

– Washington Free Beacon – A Chinese attack submarine stalked the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan near Japan last month in the closest encounter between a carrier and a People’s Liberation Army Navy submarine since 2006

– Defense News – China using maritime militia to carry out its dirty work in seagoing confrontations.

– Economist – As America challenges China, the temperature rises in the South China Sea

– Reuters – In a legal setback for Beijing, an arbitration court in the Netherlands ruled on Thursday that it has jurisdiction to hear some territorial claims the Philippines has filed against China over disputed areas in the South China Sea.

– Congressional Research Service – The latest analysis from Ronald O’Rourke.

– USNI News – A trio of Chinese warships in the middle of a world tour are in route to Naval Station Mayport, Fla. for a scheduled goodwill port visit next month.

– Reuters – Senior U.S. naval officers visited China’s lone aircraft carrier this week, China’s military said, as the two powers try to maintain military ties despite mounting tensions over Beijing’s claims in disputed waters in the South China Sea.

– The Economist – China no longer accepts that America should be Asia-Pacific’s dominant naval power

– USNI News – Amidst U.S. and Australian concerns of Chinese military expansion in the South China Sea, officials with China’s foreign ministry are claiming military facilities on a series of artificial islands are “for defense purposes only” in reaction to “high-profile display[s] of military strength and frequent and large-scale military drills by certain countries and their allies in the South China Sea.”

– War is Boring – Over the past two decades, the People’s Republic of China has made great advances in its military capabilities. However, it still lags woefully behind in developing nuclear-powered submarines. The problem for the Chinese is that they lack the necessary quieting and propulsion technologies to build anything remotely comparable to an American or Russian nuclear submarine.

– National Interest – Don’t assume that an increasingly capable China is poised to conduct American-style naval air operations over Syria just yet…

– USNI News – China has completed a 10,000 foot runway on a reclaimed island in the South China Sea, according to a new round of satellite photos. The completed runway on Fiery Cross Reef could soon be operational and accelerate additional construction on the reclaimed island.

– USNI News – China has quietly begun construction on its first domestic aircraft carrier in the same northern Chinese shipyard that refurbished the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s current Soviet-era carrier

– Jane’s – Satellite imagery suggests that China may be building its first aircraft carrier at Dalian shipyard in northern China.

– RAND – Over the past two decades, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has transformed itself from a large but antiquated force into a capable, modern military. A RAND Project AIR FORCE report assesses trends in the relative capabilities of U.S. and Chinese forces in diverse operational areas, and at varying distances from the Chinese mainland, between 1996 and 2017. The overall conclusion is that although China continues to lag behind the United States in terms of aggregate military hardware and operational skills, it has improved its capabilities relative to those of the United States in many critical areas. Moreover, the report finds that China does not need to catch up fully to the United States to challenge the U.S. ability to conduct effective military operations near the Chinese mainland. To be clear, the goal is to avoid war, which the authors do not anticipate and which would be disastrous for both countries. Rather, this research provides an open-source assessment of trends that could affect U.S. defense and deterrence efforts and establishes a baseline for future analysis.