Economist – Asia’s main powers are building up their navies. Is this the start of an arms race?
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Daily Telegraph – China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region.
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New York Times – Several recent events, from an eagle-eyed spotting of an image on Google Earth to an overt military delivery from Russia, suggest that China is continuing its rapid expansion of a submarine fleet that would be particularly useful in a conflict with the United States over Taiwan.
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New York Times – Robert Kaplan writes that the ultimate strategic effect of the Iraq war has been to hasten the arrival of the Asian Century.
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UPI – China is bent on the simultaneous development of both an aircraft carrier and a strategic nuclear submarine, or SSBN. Discussions over which should take priority are over, as a higher military budget allocation has accelerated the Peopleís Liberation Army navyís ambitious plan.

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Economist – The People’s Liberation Army is investing heavily to give China the military muscle to match its economic power. But can it begin to rival America?
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Financial Times – China has surprised the Pentagon with the pace of development of a new class of submarine that threatens the nuclear balance by providing Beijing with a more robust nuclear deterrent. The Chinese navy is developing a fleet of five nuclear ballistic missile submarines. The Jin class submarines would provide a much stronger nuclear deterrent because they would be armed with the new long-range JL-2 missile.
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Aviation Week – The Defense Department has released its annual report on China’s military strategy and modernization, which seems focused on information warfare and joint forces. The whole report is here.
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Washington Times – The new commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific and Asia says he found Chinese military leaders intensely interested in acquiring aircraft carriers during a recent visit to that country.
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Daily Telegraph – A dramatic increase in the number of submarines being built in southeast Asia has sparked claims that a new arms race is under way beneath the waves in the Western Pacific.
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Washington Times – China’s military is engaged in a major buildup of submarines that includes five new strategic nuclear-missile boats and several advanced nuclear-powered attack submarines, according to the Office of Naval Intelligence.
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Naval War College Review – A Senior Captain in the Chinese Peopleís Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, writing in 2004 in Chinaís most prestigious military journal, surveys the now favorable geostrategic environment for accelerated Chinese maritime development, thereby articulating a rationale for a PLA Navy that is prepared to “defend a larger scope.”
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Naval War College Review – What even a modest aircraft carrier can do, in a variety of roles, has impressed itself upon the Chinese. They have avoided buying the wrong platform at the wrong timeóconventional large-deck ships may no longer be their ìgold standardîóbut aircraft carriers of some kind may yet complement their submarine-centered navy.
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Xinhua – The navies of China and the United States held a search-and-rescue exercise on the South China Sea on Sunday morning.
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Washington Times – Navy officials confirmed that an aircraft carrier battle group failed to detect a Chinese submarine that surfaced within weapons range of the USS Kitty Hawk.

Washington Times – Admiral says sub risked a shootout.
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Washington Times – A Chinese submarine stalked the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected.

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Xinhua – The Chinese Navy makes a port call at San Diego.
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Reuters – The Chinese and US navies are exercising off of Hawaii.
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Deutsche Presse Agentur – China has taken delivery of a fourth Sovremenny- class destroyer acquired from Russia.
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Xinhua – The medical detachment of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently held a seven-day exercise under the complicated circumstances of a maritime battlefield.
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US Naval War College Review – A new and much more capable Chinese navy, especially its submarine force, is being acquired and deployed. It is not yet mature, but its rapid and impressive modernization is making it a navy that is arguably the only one that the U.S. Navy must deter or be able to defeatóunless, under other circumstances, it becomes a high-seas partner.

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Defense and the National Interest – William Lind comments on the Defense Departmentís annual report to Congress, Military Power of the Peopleís Republic of China, 2006.
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Imaging Notes – An exclusive preview of Chinaís limited nuclear capabilities, the full report of which will be published by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Federation of American Scientists later this year. The story features a first look at Chinaís nuclear submarine, the Xia, and shows how commercial remote sensing can unwrap some of the mysteries of countries and regions in the world to which we have limited access.
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Taipei Times – Chinese leaders are acutely conscious of the sea’s importance to their country’s economic development and, indirectly, to their political survival. They have come to view defending the sea lanes where merchant ships haul the oil, gas and other raw materials needed to fuel the economy as a vital national interest. China is less and less content to entrust its interests at sea to the uncertain goodwill of the US, its rival for regional pre-eminence and Asia’s long-time guardian of maritime security.

Accordingly, China has embarked on an assertive foreign policy in Southeast and South Asia, which adjoin the sea lines of communication connecting Chinese seaports with the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. Its strategy: to build up sea power, measured in ships, bases and alliances.
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APP – Two Chinese Navy ships arrived to carry out first-ever joint exercise with the Pakistan Navy outside the Chinese territorial waters.
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