Christian Science Monitor – China warships dock in Burma, rattling rival naval power India

China and India have overlapping ambitions in the Indian Ocean. So as China flexes its naval reach, India is left debating how to assume leadership in the Indian Ocean.

Associated Press – Chinese navy to hold drills in Yellow Sea

China said Sunday its navy will stage live-ammunition drills in the Yellow Sea this week, after it condemned U.S.-South Korean joint naval exercises in the region and vowed to respond in kind.

University of Sydney – The Gathering Storm: China’s Challenge to US Power in Asia

Transcript of the fourth annual Michael Hintze Lecture in International Security, delivered by Professor John Mearsheimer.

(Thanks to Cris for the link!)

Defense Technology International – China Report – No Alarmism Allowed

Bill Sweetman writes that the Pentagon’s new report on China’s military power is so muted that it is no longer even called that. Although the filename includes the acronym CMPR – China Military Power Report – the title is “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China”, which reads a little as if China’s military was expanding and modernizing all by itself. China’s leaders are not as inhibited, dropping hints in recent days that first tests are imminent of the Dong Feng 21D (DF-21D) anti-ship ballistic missile system, accompanied by artwork showing its intended mission.

Wall Street Journal – U.S. Sounds Alarm at China’s Military Buildup

In its annual report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities, the Pentagon voiced alarm over China’s military buildup, saying it was expanding its advantage over Taiwan and investing heavily in ballistic and cruise missile capabilities that could one day pose a challenge to U.S. dominance in the western Pacific.

Associated Press – Chinese missile could shift Pacific power balance

U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China – an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).

The Diplomat – China Air Force Steps it Up

US assumptions about China’s air power look outdated. It’s building a force that will be without rival in the Asia-Pacific.

PTI – China naval exercises to counter US-S Korean moves

In a move that could escalate tensions in the surcharged Korean peninsula, China said its military forces would kick-off live ammunition exercises in East China Sea from tomorrow in an apparent response to a joint naval manoeuvres between US and South Korea.

Foreign Affairs – Q&A With Robert Kaplan on China

Robert D. Kaplan answers questions about China’s expanding naval power. His book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power will be published in the fall.

US Naval Institute Proceedings – ‘Get Off the Fainting Couch’

Have fretful descriptions of China’s medium-range antiship ballistic missile endangered America’s strategic standing in the Pacific Basin? Its time to stop worrying and start managing the Chinese ASBM threat.

US Naval Institute Proceedings – Scanning the Horizon for ‘New Historical Missions’

The Chinese Navy is the special beneficiary of its government’s embrace of ‘externalization.’

International Institute for Strategic Studies – Chinese navy’s new strategy in action

The news from Tokyo on 10 April 2010 that the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force had monitored ten Chinese warships passing 140km south of Okinawa through the Miyako Strait marked a new stage in China’s naval development. The deployment was of unprecedented size and scope for the Chinese navy, and was the second such operation mounted by China in rapid succession: in March, a smaller flotilla had been deployed on exercises. The two sets of exercises, along with Chinese counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, demonstrate the flexibility of China’s naval forces and their greater prominence in Beijing’s strategic calculations.

The Diplomat – China Set for Naval Hegemony

The Chinese navy has been throwing its weight around in East Asia. A US Navy commander asks how much longer the US can do anything about it.

The Australian – Beijing bolsters navy with eye on Pacific

China’s navy is modernising and expanding much more rapidly than expected, as Beijing seeks to extend its influence in the South China Sea deep into the Pacific, according to US military officials and analysts.

New York Times – Chinese Military Seeks to Extend Its Naval Power

The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, military officials and analysts say.

Mainichi Daily News – Chinese navy movements south of Okinawa leave Japan on edge

A fleet of 10 Chinese navy vessels, including two submarines, were spotted passing through the high seas between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island on Thursday, the Japanese Defense Ministry has announced.

Defense Technology International – Heck Of A Casino You Got There, Admiral Wu

China’s aircraft carrier, the former Soviet Varyag, has left dry dock at Dalian shipyard.

The Diplomat – Why China’s Naval Rise Could Help the World

The upside of the rise of the People’s Liberation Army Navy…

US Naval War College Review – China’s Aircraft Carrier Ambitions An Update

This article will address two major analytical questions. First, what are the necessary and suffi cient conditions for China to acquire aircraft carriers? Second, what are the major implications if China does acquire aircraft carriers?

Christian Science Monitor – China joins multinational naval force to fight Somali piracy

With Somali piracy still posing a severe threat, China agreed Thursday to join the US, Europe, and others in a multilateral naval force. Since late 2008, China has dispatched four flotillas to the Gulf of Aden area, expanding its military activity abroad.

Economist – China’s assertiveness at sea: Choppy Waters

East and south, China makes a splash.

US Naval War College Review – Using the Land to Control the Sea? Chinese Analysts Consider the Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile

For China, the ability to prevent a U.S. carrier strike group from intervening in the event of a Taiwan Strait crisis is critical. Beijing’s immediate strategic concerns have been defi ned with a high level of clarity. The Chinese are interested in achieving an antiship ballistic missile (ASBM) capability because it offers them the prospect of limiting the ability of other nations, particularly the United States, to exert military infl uence on China’s maritime periphery, which contains several disputed zones of core strategic importance to Beijing. ASBMs are regarded as a means by which technologically limited developing countries can overcome by asymmetric means their qualitative inferiority in conventional combat platforms, because the gap between offense and defense is the greatest
here. Today, China may be closer than ever to attaining this capability.

US Naval War College Review – China’s Antiship Ballistic Missile: Developments and Missing Links

China’s pursuit of an antiship ballistic missile (ASBM) has been called a potential “game changer,” a weapon that could single-handedly shift the strategic balance with the United States. A retired U.S. Navy rear admiral asserted as early as 2005 that an ASBM capability could represent “the strategic equivalent of China’s acquiring nuclear weapons in 1964.” Whether or not this is accurate, an effective ASBM capability would undoubtedly constitute a formidable antiaccess weapon against the U.S. Navy in the western Pacifi c, particularly during a conflict over Taiwan. However, as the Chinese literature demonstrates, it would mean more than that. Fully operational ASBM capability along with essential C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance,
and reconnaissance) support would be a barometer of China’s greater military modernization effort, a potential instrument for regional strategic ambitions, and perhaps an important element in tipping the long-term maritime
strategic balance with respect to the United States.

Xinhua – Chinese new naval flotilla sets sail for Gulf of Aden while merchant vessel still held by pirates

A new Chinese naval flotilla was deployed to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the coast of Somalia on Friday to protect merchant vessels against rampant pirates that still hold a Chinese ship for ransom. The flotilla of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has been the fourth task force of its kind that China has sent to the region since the end of last year.

BBC – China vows to free hijacked ship

China has pledged to make an “all out” effort to rescue a cargo ship with 25 crew on board that has been hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean.