#s-lg-book-prop-isbn { display: none; }
Skip to Main Content*Some Resources May Require TRADOC HQ SharePoint Access. Contact your librarian for help* These resources are intended as overviews of relevant discussion and do not represent endorsement by TRADOC.
Articles & Reports
What Does China's Consolidation of Political Power Mean for its Military? (RAND March 2019)
Testimony presented before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on February 7, 2019.
The concentration of political power in China under President Xi Jinping has impacted the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The military has undergone organizational reforms, and many senior officials have been caught in an anticorruption purge. Will these efforts make the military and domestic security forces more effective? RAND testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission analyzes these issues and explores considerations for U.S. policymakers.
URL: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/testimonies/CT500/CT503/RAND_CT503.pdf
China’s 21st Century Rise in Historical Perspective (CSIS Video/Audio 1.5 hrs)
At this event Professor Mühlhahn will focus on the lessons from history that provide insight into China's evolving international position and how the United States and others should respond.
URL: https://www.csis.org/events/chinas-21st-century-rise-historical-perspective
**Check out the ChinaPower Podcast episodes for more “Listen & Learn” opportunities: https://www.csis.org/podcasts/chinapower
Seven Myths about China (PacNet Newsletter, 2/28/2019)
Debating the implications of the rise of Chinese wealth, power, and ambition has become a global cottage industry. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by myths about China that hamper debate.
China's Military Space Strategy: A Dialectical Materialism Perspective (Space & Defense; Spring2019)
China's military space strategy accommodates in significant ways the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) ideological commitment to dialectical materialism. This Marxian commitment persists and manifests in China's investment in space power despite the Party's widely acknowledged development of state capitalism to guide China's economy.
China’s Riskfare (ODOM, JONATHAN G. U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Mar2019)
The United States must spotlight China's risky behavior and take actions to counter its dangerous tactics. INTERACTIONS involving China and what they have in common.
Country Reports - China. (China Country Monitor, IHS Markit, Feb2019) 76p.
A country report for China is presented from publisher IHS Markit, with topics including political and economic risk, economic forecasts, and economic indicators.
China Military Power: Modernizing a Force to Fight and Win (Defense Intelligence Agency, 2019)
This volume provides details on China’s defense and military goals, strategy, plans, and intentions; the organization, structure, and capability of its military supporting those goals; and the enabling infrastructure and industrial base. This product and other reports in the series are intended to inform our public, our leaders, the national security community, and partner nations about the challenges we face in the 21st century.
Counter and Cooperate: How Space Can Be Used to Advance US-China Cooperation While Curbing Beijing's Terrestrial Excesses (Air & Space Power Journal. Spring2019)
The article proposes a two-fold approach to develop trust and preserve the American interest which involves deter Chinese excesses in the South China Sea (SCS) and employ a multifaceted approach to prevent conflict from extending to space. It mentions that space has become a central focus of China's national security strategy, which continues to expand outward from an immediate defense of the Chinese homeland to protecting interests overseas and even in space.
The New Containment: Handling Russia, China, and Iran (Foreign Affairs. Mar/Apr2019)
The article focuses on the proposed applicant of containment to Russia, China, and Iran, by the United States. The author compares 21st century world politics to those of the Cold War era, discusses the power and influence set forth by Russia, China, and Iran, and explores how the U.S. can increase its political influence.
Michael Collins at CSIS: CIA Headlines Schieffer Panel on “China’s Rise” at CSIS (Video, March 20, 2019) 1 hour
Collins, and fellow panelists, held a robust conversation on a broad range of issues impacting US-China relations and the international community, including how China’s domestic governance model has changed under President Xi Jinping’s leadership and how China leverages its economic growth and military strength to influence the international order. Collins was very clear about what the challenge is not.
URL: https://www.cia.gov/news-information/blog/2019/csis-michael-collins.html
"Reading China" The Internet of Things, Surveillance, and Social Management in the PRC (China Perspectives. 2019)
The "informatisation" agenda of the CCP calls upon a wide range of ICTs to transform everything from manufacturing to social management. The umbrella of versatile Internet of Things technology therefore serves as a key component of policy makers' efforts to further digitalisation. This paper explores claims that Chinese ICT policy appropriates the Internet of Things to improve surveillance and social management in order to increase the governing capacity of the Chinese state apparatus. Finally, the paper discusses the emerging credit systems in the face of a shift towards digitalisation and reliance on data-driven analysis, and the increased attention given to cyber security that results from the Chinese state' reliance on technology.
NIDS China Security Report 2019: China's Strategy for Reshaping the Asian Order and Its Ramifications (2019-02)
"The 'NIDS China Security Report' is published by the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) to provide analysis conducted by its researchers on China's military affairs and security from a mid- to long-term perspective. [...] The 'China Security Report 2019', the ninth in this series and subtitled 'China's Strategy for Reshaping the Asian Order and Its Ramifications,' analyzes the content and outlook of China's strategy for the international order. This report further analyzes the country's strategy for a new international order in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific island countries, detailing the sort of influence that it exerts on each of those areas." Japan. National Institute for Defense Studies
URL: http://www.nids.mod.go.jp/publication/chinareport/pdf/china_report_EN_web_2019_A01.pdf
The Study of China's Military Strategy and Satellite Development: Moving Toward "Winning the Informationized War Globally"? (Korean Journal of Defense Analysis; Mar2019)
China's military strategy has evolved across different leaders' eras. Even though China's military strategic guideline always stays on the track of "active defense," the essence has been shifting from tradition to informationization. Since satellites are able to provide space information support so as to fulfill informationization, once informationization becomes the focus of military strategy, it is supposed to bring momentum to the research and development of satellites. Therefore, satellite development can be considered as an index to check whether the military strategy is being implemented or not.
Understanding China's AI Strategy: Clues to Chinese Strategic Thinking on Artificial Intelligence and National Security (Center for a New American Security 2019-02)
From the Introduction by author Gregory C. Allen: "In the second half of 2018, I traveled to China on four separate trips to attend major diplomatic, military, and private-sector conferences focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI). During these trips, I participated in a series of meetings with high-ranking Chinese officials in China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaders of China's military AI research organizations, government think tank experts, and corporate executives at Chinese AI companies. From these discussions - as well as my ongoing work analyzing China's AI industry, policies, reports, and programs - I have arrived at a number of key judgments about Chinese leadership's views, strategies, and prospects for AI as it applies to China's economy and national security. Of course, China's leadership in this area is a large population with diversity in its views, and any effort to generalize is inherently presumptuous and essentially guaranteed to oversimplify. However, the distance is large between prevailing views in American commentary on China's AI efforts and what I have come to believe are the facts. I hope by stating my takeaways directly, this report will advance the assessment of this issue and be of benefit to the wider U.S. policymaking community." Center for a New American Security
URL: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=821397
Essay: Reframing the U.S.- China AI 'Arms Race' (New America Foundation 2019-03)
"China is going to develop superior artificial intelligence and take over the world, it seems--at least if one listens to what many commentators have been shouting from the rooftops. Indeed, over the past year, American security analysts, policymakers, and journalists alike have increasingly used a Cold War-era analogy to describe issues around the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-- specifically characterizing the state of U.S.-China technological competition as an 'AI arms race,' whereby the United States and China are presumably locked in competition for artificial intelligence hegemony. [...] The first chapter argues why this winner-takes-all arms race framing treats AI development as if it occurs in vacuums within the United States and China. [...] The second chapter argues why this framing incorrectly treats artificial intelligence like one technology, rather than a catch-all term that alludes to a variety of technologies. [...] The third chapter explains why AI competition between the United States and China is critically important, even if the winner-takes-all arms race framing is wrong. [...] Finally, I will offer options for reframing AI competition--away from an arms race metaphor--in a fashion which maximizes AI development in the United States while avoiding potentially problematic outcomes and hopefully limiting the contributions of AI to Chinese power."
URL: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=823124
Why China Has Not Caught Up Yet: Military-Technological Superiority and the Limits of Imitation, Reverse Engineering, and Cyber Espionage (The MIT Press, 2019)
Can countries easily imitate the United States' advanced weapon systems and thus erode its military-technological superiority? Scholarship in international relations theory generally assumes that rising states benefit from the "advantage of backwardness." That is, by free riding on the research and technology of the most advanced countries, less developed states can allegedly close the military-technological gap with their rivals relatively easily and quickly. More recent works maintain that globalization, the emergence of dual-use components, and advances in communications have facilitated this process. This literature is built on shaky theoretical foundations, however, and its claims lack empirical support. In particular, it largely ignores one of the most important changes to have occurred in the realm of weapons development since the second industrial revolution: the exponential increase in the complexity of military technology. This increase in complexity has promoted a change in the system of production that has made the imitation and replication of the performance of state-of-the-art weapon systems harder—so much so as to offset the diffusing effects of globalization and advances in communications. An examination of the British-German naval rivalry (1890–1915) and China's efforts to imitate U.S. stealth fighters supports these findings.
China-US: New Military Challenges in East Asia and Beyond (Institute for Strategic Political Security and Economic Advice (ISPSW) 2019-02)
"The Forbidden City is cognizant of the fateful importance of the audacious initiative to remake East Asia, and is therefore anticipating harsh reaction from the US - including possible military undertakings. Back on 4 January, the China Daily published a broad-brush analysis of the challenges facing China in 2019 and beyond by Hu Yumin, the Vice-Secretary General of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association. Hu Yumin emphasized the growing threats stemming from the escalation of US operations in East Asia and particularly in relation to the Korean Peninsula. 'Making power competition a national strategic focus, the US has accelerated its military buildup in the Asia-Pacific region, including the missile defense network in Japan and the Republic of Korea. The concentration of more than 50 percent of its naval long-range striking forces in the region makes the US strategy to promote extended deterrence in Northeast Asia in both conventional and nuclear fields even more important. Against this background, China is accelerating its investment in major weapons programs, so as to strengthen its self-defense and maintain regional strategic stability.' Special attention should be paid to the US approach to the Korea challenge because 'the US security policy toward Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula is based on two pillars: to pursue coordination with its allies, with Japan and the ROK in particular; and to pursue diplomacy with countries such as Russia and China.'"
URL: https://www.ispsw.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/603_Bodansky.pdf
China's Missile Program and U.S. Withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission 2019-02-04)
"On February 2, 2019, the United States suspended its obligations under the INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty that it entered into with the Soviet Union in 1987 and began the technical process of treaty withdrawal. The INF Treaty requires destruction of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (km) (310 and 3,410 miles), their launchers, and associated support structures and equipment. China is not a party to the treaty, and has consistently refused to accede to the accord. In the meantime, over the last two decades Beijing has built up a formidable missile arsenal outside the limits of the pact. In explaining its justification for withdrawing from the INF Treaty, the Trump Administration has cited both Chinese missile capabilities and Russian violations of the agreement. [...] This brief explains the importance of China's ground-launched missile capabilities to Beijing's overall military strategy; surveys Chinese reactions to U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty; and assesses both the positive and negative implications of treaty withdrawal for the military balance in Asia, global arms control regime, U.S. relations with Asian allies, and China-Russia ties."
URL: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=821409
Making Solid Tracks: North Korea's Railway Connections with China and Russia (Cha, Victor D, CSIS Beyond Parallel 2019-01-07)
"This report is the second in a series of CSIS [Center for Strategic and International Studies] original reports on the inter-Korean and Korea-Eurasian railway connections including analysis, satellite imagery, and an overview of technical specifications. (See the Beyond Parallel report on the two North Korea-South Korea rail connections for more on inter-Korean railway cooperation.) With the December 26 groundbreaking ceremony at the Panmun station on the east side of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, North and South Korea are moving forward with inter-Korean railway cooperation as a key engine for advancing inter-Korean reconciliation and building the infrastructure for eventual unification. Railway re-connection would allow the Korean peninsula to be integrated into a rail network spanning the Eurasian continent through China and Russia. Nonetheless, a long and significant modernization process will need to take place to fully integrate the systems in a commercially viable way. There is compatibility in South Korea, North Korea, and China's rail systems, all using a track gauge of 1,435 mm. On the North Korea-China border, two connection points have large classification yards for assembling and reassembling freight trains. A third point has only a small yard. Russia, Mongolia, and other Central Asian countries use a gauge of 1,520 mm. Satellite imagery analysis indicates that while the North Korean facility on the Russian border is physically the largest along any of its borders, much of it is either open land or abandoned."
URL: https://beyondparallel.csis.org/making-solid-tracks-north-koreas-railway-connections-china-russia/
Art of the Balance: Japan, China and the United States (Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA 2019-01-31)
"There's a delicate balance to relations between Japan and China. Economic realities are weighed against security concerns; a desire for maintaining the status quo balanced against long-term worries that China is a future threat and the United States a potentially unreliable ally. When looking out from Tokyo, the strategic threats and security concerns that rest on the horizon range from the immediate and tangible -- North Korea, which in 2017 sent two ballistic missiles flying over Hokkaido into the Pacific -- to the inconvenient legacies of an unsigned peace treaty with Russia -- an ongoing territorial dispute blocks the path to a peace treaty. Perennial debates about the sustainability of the American commitment to its Asian allies, exacerbated by U.S. President Donald Trump's capricious diplomatic style and repeated criticisms of U.S. allies not paying a fair share of defense costs -- Japan and South Korea, specifically -- only serve to emphasize for Japan the importance of maintaining balance in its regional relations. But pulling Japanese attention, always, is China."
URL: https://spfusa.org/spfusa-news/the-art-of-the-balance-japan-china-and-the-united-states/
China's Biotechnology Development: The Role of US and Other Foreign Engagement (Rhodium Group Gryphon Scientific 2019)
"This report reviews the development of China's biotechnology industry and the role foreign trade, investment and other linkages--particularly with the United States--have played in its evolution. We find that integration and collaboration run deep, and that disrupting these linkages would bring high costs for innovation, US welfare and public wealth. Continued investment by the US in its own biotechnology industry will go a long way toward limiting the effectiveness of China's efforts to close the biotechnology gap between the two countries. At the same time, the US needs to address concerns arising from China's current policy directions, including better screening of investment and other engagements for potential national security risks and the protection of sensitive data."
URL: https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/US-China Biotech Report.pdf
Beyond Hybrid War: How China Exploits Social Media to Sway American Opinion (Cyber Threat Analysis, Recorded Future, Inc. 2019-03-06?)
"Recorded Future analyzed data from several Western social media platforms from October 1, 2018 through February 22, 2019 to determine how the Chinese state exploits social media to influence the American public. This report details those techniques and campaigns using data acquired from Recorded Future® Platform, social media sites, and other OSINT [open-source intelligence] techniques. This report will be of most value to government departments, geopolitical scholars and researchers, and all users of social media."
URL: https://go.recordedfuture.com/hubfs/reports/cta-2019-0306.pdf
Understanding and Combating Russian and Chinese Influence Operations (2019-02-28 Center for American Progress)
"To develop best approaches to these troubling trends, the United States must first understand the challenges posed by China and Russia, including each regime's motivations and playbooks, as they seek to exert their influence around the world. China sees itself as the United States' peer competitor and wants to tilt the playing field further in its favor, which has led it to deploy a playbook dependent on perceived legitimacy. Russia, on the other hand, is not a peer competitor--or even a near-peer competitor--with the United States. In contrast to China, Russia seeks to level the playing field by disrupting and subverting the international order. Moreover, its strategy to alter the status quo is predicated not on legitimacy but on chaos. Given the vast capabilities that China and Russia deploy on a global scale, as well as several high-profile incidents of Chinese and Russian interference in the past several years, it is worth briefly exploring each regime's strategic intent, their general goals, some of the techniques they deploy in support of their goals, and the similarities and differences between them."
URL: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=822729
Strategic Competition and Foreign Policy: What is 'Political Warfare'? (Congressional Research Service March 8, 2019)
From the Document: "In recent years, scholars have formed a consensus around the notion that the United States has reentered an international strategic competition with other great powers, notably Russia and China. This great power competition has political, economic and military dimensions, with potentially far-reaching implications for U.S. foreign and national security policy." Library of Congress.
URL: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=823185
China: Observations on Confucius Institutes in the United States and U.S. Universities in China, Statement of Jason Bair, Acting Director, International Affairs and Trade, Testimony Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate (United States. Government Accountability Office 2019-02-28)
From the Document: "Numerous U.S. universities and colleges have partnered with Chinese entities to establish (1) Confucius Institutes in the United States and (2) degree-granting institutions in China. Confucius Institutes are partnerships between Chinese entities and schools in other countries, arranged and funded in part by Hanban, which seek to promote Chinese language and culture. There were 96 institutes located at colleges and universities in the United States as of January 2019. U.S. universities have also partnered with Chinese universities to establish degreegranting institutions in China approved by the Chinese government. [...] This testimony discusses funding, agreements, and operations of (1) Confucius Institutes in the United States and (2) U.S. universities in China."
TRADOC Headquarter Library • E-Mail Form • 757-501-7138
705 Washington Blvd., Rm56 • Joint Base Langley-Eustis • Virginia • 23604
Open (EST) Mon-Thurs 0730-1600 • Alternate Fridays 0730-1530 • (Closed for Federal Holidays)