China Maritime Studies Institute – Xi Jinping has played a critical role in the Chinese Navy’s rapid transformation into a large, technologically advanced sea service capable of conducting an expanding catalog of maritime operations, from the littorals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the Atlantic Ocean.

Naval News – China is launching submarines at a pace unmatched by any other nation. Its latest design, a distinctive and innovative vessel that dispenses with the traditional sail, marks another step in the evolution of an increasingly capable and technologically advanced submarine force. With little official information available, understanding the purpose and capabilities of this new class depends largely on intelligence gathering and expert analysis.

Naval News – Japan confirms first operational integration of the PLAN’s Type 054B / Jiangkai III-class frigate into a carrier strike group formation.

The War Zone – New details add weight to the idea that the “Bohai Sea Monster” has a kinetic role to play, although the general concept could be supersized for other missions.

US Naval War College Review – Despite improvements in precision recruiting, pay, and benefits, and general outreach, several challenges continue to hamper efforts by the PLAN and other services to recruit the best possible candidates. These included overburdened recruiting officials, ineffectual support for military recruitment within China’s universities, and low physical fitness among potential recruits.

China Maritime Studies Institute – Given the substantial increase in sustainment requirements for the PLA Navy’s next-generation aircraft carriers, and acknowledging the limitations inherent in the Type 901 replenishment ship due to the technological constraints of its design era, the next-generation (新型) carrier replenishment vessel is expected to undergo significant modifications compared to its predecessor in several key areas.

Global Times – The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s hospital ship Silk Road Ark returned to a military port in Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province on Sunday after completing Harmony Mission-2025, its first mission outside China and the longest of its kind.

China Maritime Studies Institute – In August 2025, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) conducted a large-scale exercise to simulate an invasion of Taiwan. This “capstone” amphibious exercise suggests that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) training and preparations for a future Taiwan campaign are becoming more focused, realistic, and sophisticated.

Center for Statecraft and Naval Security – The study finds that we are in a period of strategic warning time on Taiwan and that the risk of serious escalation around the Strait of Taiwan is a real possibility well within a ten‑year timeframe.

USNI News – Beijing’s newest and largest aircraft carrier is expected to achieve full operational readiness this year, Chinese state media reported when highlighting the rapid progress of the country’s carrier program and naval aviation developments.

ABC – A large torpedo-shaped device was found last week by a fisherman near an island in the Lombok Strait, a strategically important sea lane linking Australia to the South China Sea. It has been identified as a Chinese undersea monitoring system designed to be moored to an anchor on the sea floor while sending data home via communication buoys deployed to the surface.

(Thanks to Alain)

Covert Shores – This article aims to highlight the sheer scale and momentum of cargo UAV development in China.

Global Times – China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, will undergo a full transition from initial to full operational capability in 2026, with far-sea training expected, official media reported on Sunday. Chinese military affairs experts said that the Fujian has moved from construction to launch to commissioning at a fast pace, achieving operational capability in a very short time.

Breaking Defense – The Pentagon already closely tracks dual-use technology, but The Heritage Foundation’s Brent Sadler and Allen Zhang write in this op-ed that it’s past time to keep an eye on potential dual-use maritime infrastructure.

Covert Shores – An unusual device found by fishermen in Gili Trawangan, West Nusa, Tenggara in Indonesia is a Chinese moored underwater sensor. The waters where it was found is near the strategically important Lombok Strait, a natural chokepoint connecting the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Java Sea.

(Thanks to Alain)

The Bridge – A write up of this conference, by Dr. Erickson who is Professor of Strategy in the U.S. Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute. These are his personal views, based solely on open sources. 

CIMSEC – Part 2 of an interview with Hunter Stires. Hunter Stires, who served as the Maritime Strategist to the Secretary of the Navy during the tenure of Secretary Carlos Del Toro, views each of these challenges as interconnected parts of a global struggle for the Freedom of the Sea and the international order, with the central front in the South China Sea. Stires believes the future of global order rests on the extent to which China succeeds in claiming ownership to one of the world’s most important waterways and disrupting the centuries-old concept of the freedom of the seas upon which the modern global order was founded. Stires helped found the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Counterinsurgency (COIN) Project to better conceptualize and combat China’s battle to overturn the international order at sea. This interview captures Stires’ thoughts on the history of the Maritime COIN project and its ongoing relevance for intensifying strategic competition between the US and China.

Global Times – An official media report on Sunday disclosed multiple new developments regarding the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s Type 054B guided-missile frigate Qinzhou. The report highlighted one of its most distinctive features: a next-generation architecture powered by advanced AI algorithms, enabling near-zero blind spots in air defense. Experts say the Type 054B represents a major leap in integrated combat capability and positions the vessel among the most advanced frigates in service today.

Naval News – Super-sized hovercraft provide a rare and specialized capability that only a handful of navies can afford. China is the only nation investing in these massive platforms, pursuing series production of the Zubr-class vessels for amphibious assault operations. These offer key operational advantages and may signal a growing level of preparedness for a potential invasion of Taiwan.

CIMSEC – The international order has come under immense strain in recent years. Major wars have erupted between the great powers in Ukraine and the Middle East. The U.S.’s top geopolitical rivals have increasingly coalesced, with China and Russia both rapidly modernizing and expanding their arsenals of strategic weapons. Meanwhile, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan looms, possibly backed by Moscow. The current challenges make China’s years-old claims to the entirety of the South China Sea seem quaint and insignificant in comparison.

Hunter Stires, who served as the Maritime Strategist to the Secretary of the Navy during the tenure of Secretary Carlos Del Toro, views each of these challenges as interconnected parts of a global struggle for the Freedom of the Sea and the international order, with the central front in the South China Sea. Stires believes the future of global order rests on the extent to which China succeeds in claiming ownership to one of the world’s most important waterways and disrupting the centuries-old concept of the freedom of the seas upon which the modern global order was founded. Stires helped found the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Counterinsurgency (COIN) Project to better conceptualize and combat China’s battle to overturn the international order at sea. This interview captures Stires’ thoughts on the history of the Maritime COIN project and its ongoing relevance for intensifying strategic competition between the US and China.

Naval News – In the high-stakes world of submarine acquisition, true performance-first designs are exceedingly rare. The immense cost involved almost always forces trade-offs, shaping vessels around budget, strategy, and industrial constraints as much as pure capability. Until now the U.S. Navy’s Seawolf-class stood as the benchmark of an uncompromising approach to undersea warfare. Now, it appears that China’s latest nuclear-powered attack submarine, the Type 095 (also known as Type 09V), is built with a similarly ambitious philosophy.

Defense News – China is conducting a vast undersea mapping and monitoring operation across the Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, building detailed knowledge of marine conditions that naval experts say would be crucial for waging submarine warfare against the United States and its allies.

China Maritime Studies Institute – The concept of a maritime community with a shared destiny proposed by Chairman Xi is China’s wisdom and approach for maintaining global maritime peace, promoting ocean development, enhancing global maritime governance, and advancing maritime security cooperation. This should guide efforts to tailor security cooperation relationships based on different targets. We need to broaden our thinking and innovate mechanisms for maritime security cooperation, take proactive steps to provide maritime public security goods, strengthen coordinated implementation of external maritime military assistance, and promote the creation of a new landscape in maritime military security cooperation.

Andrew Erickson – Andrew S. Erickson, Statement for the Record for Hearing on “Part of Your World: U.S.-China Competition Under the Sea,” U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Washington, DC, 2 March 2026.