The War Zone – A homegrown airborne early warning and control jet based on the Y-20 cargo aircraft is a big enhancement for China’s current fleet dominated by turboprops.

Naval News – Chinese shipyard Hudong-Zhonghua today, December 27, conducted a launch ceremony for the innovative new Type 076 amphibious carrier, at its facilities on Changxing Island in Shanghai. The event marks a major milestone in a project drawing significant international attention. According to officials statements the new ship will receive the hull number 51 and the name “Sichuan”, after the eponymous province in southwestern China.

Royal Aeronautical Society – On Boxing Day 26 December 2024, pictures and video emerged of a new Chinese stealth aircraft, featuring a unique configuration of three engines, diamond planform and no tail. Veteran aviation journalist and stealth expert BILL SWEETMAN assesses what we know so far. 

The Diplomat – While maritime militia forces are not playing a major role in China’s multi-pronged pressure campaign against Taiwan, they are not completely absent from the battlespace.

China Maritime Studies Institute – The construction of the Type 052C guided missile destroyer took a long time, and it was experimental in the sense of “taking small steps for rapid progress” (xiao bu kuai pao). In fact, it was also the engineering prototype of the standard fleet destroyer Type 052D. The first and second Type 052C ships were launched in April and October 2003, respectively. They were the most advanced guided missile destroyers of the PLAN at that time, but the subsequent four ships of the same type were launched in October 2010, July 2011, and January and July 2012, respectively.

1945 – This week, the Department of Defense released its twenty-fourth annual China Military Power Report (CMPR). Here are the most important revelations from its 182 pages that informed professionals need to know.

War on the Rocks – China’s military is both corrupt and increasingly capable. Yesterday, the Pentagon released its 24th China Military Power Report since Congress initiated its mandate in 2000, offering revelations unavailable elsewhere. The document reveals new details of the most dramatic military buildup since World War II, ongoing challenges that Chairman Xi Jinping and his party army are addressing with determination, and context to interpret what it all means. The bottom line: endemic corruption and lingering personnel and organizational weaknesses must be weighed against the Chinese Communist Party’s unrivaled ability to marshal resources and its ongoing production and deployment of advanced military systems on an unmatched industrial scale. Xi commands a system riven by brutal elite power struggles, but he is determined to pursue control over Taiwan with an increasingly potent toolkit. With deadly seriousness, he continues to advance sweeping organizational reforms to maximize relevant warfighting capabilities in fulfillment of his Centennial Military Building Goal of 2027, even at the cost of short-term churn and challenges.

The War Zone – China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has expanded its global reach and moved more regularly and in greater mass beyond its regional waters in the past year as it continues to roll out warships and logistics support vessels that provide the force with greater range. That’s one finding from the unclassified version of an annual Pentagon’s report to Congress on China’s military that was released Wednesday.

The Diplomat – Part two of a two-part series detailing China’s amphibious warfare and the implications for Taiwan.

The Diplomat – Part one of a two-part series detailing China’s amphibious warfare and the implications for Taiwan.

RUSI – This paper seeks to outline the likely scope of a putative presence of the People’s Liberation Army Navy in and around the Euro-Atlantic in the next 15 years and the nature of the foreign policy it will support.

China Daily – In a bid to bolster collaborative maritime security efforts, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy convened naval leaders from 18 countries across the Gulf of Guinea region in Shanghai on Wednesday for the second seminar on the Gulf of Guinea maritime security situation.

China Maritime Studies Institute – The PLA Navy Reserve is an important and understudied element of PRC maritime power that could augment the active-duty force and improve its ability to undertake global operations and wage a protracted war.

The PLAN Reserve appears to be transitioning from a substandard backup force to an increasingly well-trained complement to the active-duty force.

In the past, the PLAN Reserve suffered from low morale and lackluster participation. Training scandals occurred in which navy reservists did not muster up when recalled for training. It is unclear to what extent these problems persist today.

The overhaul of the PLAN’s reserve components, specifically the integration of the PLAN Reserve into a centralized command structure and the introduction of new legislative and policy reforms, constitutes a serious effort to enhance operational effectiveness, increase mobilization speeds, and improve readiness.

The PLAN Reserve is remarkably opaque. While little has been publicly revealed about this shadowy force, future research may offer opportunities to develop early-warning indicators and help reveal plans, intentions, and capabilities.

The War Zone – Additional photos provide a more detailed look at the mysterious Chinese flattop that TWZ was first to report on, and which recently went to sea, apparently for its first trials. While the exact function of this vessel remains murky, the recently published photos do confirm that it’s intended to operate rotary-wing aircraft (perhaps in addition to fixed-wing drones), but there are no obvious signs of catapults or arrester cables of the kind that would be used for operating heavier fixed-wing types. There is also no indication that the vessel has a floodable well deck like those found on many amphibious warfare ships.

China Maritime Studies Institute – Pending investigation, Xi Jinping’s protégé Admiral Miao Hua (苗华) has been suspended from his duties as a member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and Director of the CMC Political Work Department. This decision was made by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Central Committee, Defense Spokesperson Senior Colonel Wu Qian announced at the scheduled monthly PLA press briefing on 28 November 2024, because Miao is “suspected of serious violation of discipline.”2 By the time such CCP investigations become public, conviction is a foregone conclusion. Miao’s fall thus raises three principal questions: Why is he being removed, will his cronies suffer similarly, and what does it mean for China’s navy and military?

The War Zone – A mysterious Chinese vessel with a large open flight deck and three superstructures, which TWZ was first to report on, looks to have made its maiden voyage. Details about the flattop, which currently has various commercial-style rather than military markings and is unlike any other established Chinese Navy vessel class, are still scant. There remains a possibility that this could be a first-of-its-kind ostensibly civilian research ship.

China Maritime Studies Institute – In recent years, with the expansion of mission tasks, multiple services and multiple aircraft types organizing training at the same Southern Theater Command Navy aviation airfield station has gradually become the norm. In the face of increasingly heavy combat training support tasks, they closely monitor powerful enem(ies), accelerate transformation and construction, and have achieved a historic leap from single aircraft-type support to multiple aircraft-types support, from small flying periods of short-term deployed training support to large flying periods of regularized deployed training support, and from daytime simple meteorological conditions support to allweather support, with core support capabilities being comprehensively enhanced.

Breaking Defense – The head of US Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel Paparo, told an audience today that in exchange for North Korean troops and artillery, Moscow “will likely” provide Pyongyang with missile and submarine technology. And in exchange for China helping to rebuild “Russia’s war machine,” Paparo anticipates that Moscow will also be sharing submarine technology with Beijing, a move that has the “potential of closing American undersea dominance to the PRC.”

National Interest – James Holmes writes that Latin America merits attention in its own right, but it also represents a southerly vector in the U.S. strategic competition against China.

The War Zone – concept for an unprecedently large diesel-electric drone submarine, as big as some crewed types in service today, has emerged from China’s top state-run shipbuilding conglomerate. The design is said to be reconfigurable to conduct different missions, including attacks on enemy vessels, mine-laying, special operations support, and act as a mothership for smaller uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV). There is a very strong possibility this is related to an extremely similar-looking mystery submarine that emerged in China six years ago.

China Maritime Studies Institute – Through concerted efforts over the past quarter-century, the People’s Republic of China has achieved the most dramatic military buildup since World War II. Previously limited in its ability to conduct its Joint Firepower Strike, Joint Blockade, and Joint Island Landing Campaigns against Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is making rapid progress across the board as it prepares to meet the requirements of Xi Jinping’s Taiwan-focused Centennial Military Building Goal of 2027. Drawing on research, writing, and insights from some of the world’s leading experts, CMSI’s latest edited conference volume probes key questions concerning Beijing’s determined pursuit of the Chinese Communist Party’s ultimate political and strategic prize: How might the PLA attempt to execute a Joint Island Landing Campaign to achieve a cross-Strait invasion of Taiwan, what might be its prospects for success, and what must Taiwan—with American support—do urgently to shore up deterrence? The findings are nuanced but bracing. The saving grace, till now, is that Taiwan enjoys formidable defensive geography, and a large-scale amphibious invasion is one of the most difficult military operations to accomplish. However, under Xi’s concerted directives, China’s military is reforming relentlessly, bringing critical new capabilities to bear, and training tirelessly to improve its ability to carry out the operations on which it is bore-sighted. The stakes could scarcely be higher, and the clock is ticking.

Naval News – New imagery shared on social media has provided significant new details on characteristics of two new naval vessels at Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) at Longxue Island, Guangzhou. The Chinese designs are distinct concepts notionally serving as an experimental carrier for VTOL-drones or helicopters, and as an uncrewed or optionally crewed surface vessel (USV).

The War Zone – Boasting advanced avionics, Chinese-made engines, and catapult launch compatibility, the J-15T will serve aboard all of China’s aircraft carriers.

China Maritime Studies Institute – Sea mines are a type of cheap, easy to produce naval weapon that can be used both offensively and defensively. They have played a huge tactical role and even a strategic role in many wars from ancient times to the present day. Sea mines have low production costs, and they are powerful, simple to use, easy to emplace, and difficult to remove. They are characterized by the long-term threat they can pose to ports and shipping lanes. Countering sea mines is relatively difficult and requires the expenditure of rather large resources by the side conducting mine countermeasure operations.

War on the Rocks – The voyage of the Meishan and Xiushan marked another breakthrough, that, while less obvious, may be even more important. It was the first time the China Coast Guard had ever conducted a “blue-water” paranaval operation. The composition of the task force (modified naval frigates), its leadership (a career naval officer), and the secrecy that attended its activities all differed from out-of-area coast guard patrols of the past. These facts, combined with Chinese framing of the mission, suggest that Beijing regarded the deployment as an operation to defend and advance its overseas interests, making it more “gray” (that is, naval) than “white” (coast guard).