The following is the April 1, 2016 Congressional Research Service report, Maritime Territorial and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Disputes Involving China. Read More
Category Archives: China
Japan Shifting Amphibious, Coastal Defense Units Closer to China; Australia Boosts its Own Capability
Sailors launch Marines assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (31st MEU) and soldiers assigned the Japan Ground Self Defense Force from the well-deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay (LPD 20) during amphibious assault training in June 2015. US Navy photo.
Japan is boosting its amphibious and coastal defense capabilities, shifting security personnel to outer islands and converting ground forces into amphibious units capable of defending those islands from attack. Read More
Former Hill Staffers Explain Ins and Outs of Crafting Annual U.S. Defense Bill
U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2015, NASA Photo
Unlike Russia and China, the United States needs “to be in three places at once”—a rationale that lies behind some of the thinking on Capitol Hill that goes into building the thousand-page U.S. defense bill each year. Read More
Document: Report to Congress on the Chinese Military
The following is the March 24, 2016 Congressional Research Service report, The Chinese Military: Overview and Issues for Congress. Read More
China Defends Deployment of Anti-Ship Missiles to South China Sea Island
A People’s Liberation Army Y-62 missile launch on Woody Island that circulated on the Chinese language Internet last week via aviation site Alert5.
Beijing is defending the deployment of anti-ship cruise missiles to Woody Island in the South China Sea, according to a Wednesday statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. Read More
Former House Intel Chair Mike Rogers: Widened European Privacy Laws Hurt Intelligence Collection
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)
As is the case in privacy laws created after World War II, and widened in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks in Europe, “we’re going to pay a price” for limiting intelligence-collection when it comes to knowing what adversaries, terrorists and even allies are thinking, the former chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday. Read More
Dunford: Next U.S. Military Strategy Document will be Classified
Gen. Joseph Dunford testifying before Congress on March 17, 2016. DoD Photo
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the next military strategy document will be kept classified, a recommendation often called for in House and Senate armed services committee hearings that began in the fall on “defense reform.” Read More
Opinion: Don’t Miss the Boat on Australian and U.S. Policy in the South China Sea
U.S. sailors man the rails aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) sails the Sydney Opera House while pulling into Sydney, Australia in 2005. US Navy Photo
Australia’s 2016 Defense White Paper expresses concern over “friction” in the South China Sea (SCS) arising from U.S.-Chinese naval interactions, and it worries that territorial disputes have created “uncertainty and tension.” Those statements, which show Canberra (like the rest of the states in the Indo-Pacific region) is slowly coming around to the gathering threat posed by China to freedom of the seas. Read More
Taiwan Navy Emphasizing Domestic Shipbuilding Program in Ongoing Maritime Restructure
Corvette Tuo Jiang sets sail during the handover ceremony in 2014.
The Taiwan Navy (ROCN) announced a major overhaul plan that includes indigenous production of four 10,000-ton destroyers and 10-15 frigates in 2014. Read More
Brookings Panel: Improved China – Russia Relationship is a Marriage of Convenience
Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin greet participants of Joint Sea-2014 exercise at Wusong naval port in Shanghai, east China, May 20, 2014. Xinhua Photo
Although China and Russia have certainly grown closer in the last several years, their relationship is a marriage of convenience since for both their most important international relationship is not with each other but in dealing with the United States. Read More
