Product Description
This is a fascinating insight into China’s strategic abilities and ambitions, probing the real depths of its plans for the twenty-first century.
China’s Rising Sea Power explores similarities between China’s strategic outlook today and that of earlier continental powers whose submarine fleets challenged dominant maritime powers for regional hegemony: Germany in two World Wars and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Using insights from classical naval strategic theory, Peter Howarth examines Beijing’s strategic logic in making tactical submarines the keystone of China’s naval force structure. He also investigates the influence of Soviet naval strategy and ancient Chinese military thought on the PLA Navy’s strategic culture, contending that China’s increasingly capable submarine fleet could play a key role in Beijing’s use of force to resolve the Taiwan issue.
This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of security and strategic studies, Asian politics, geopolitics and military (naval) strategy.
China’s Rising Sea Power: The PLA Navy’s Submarine Challenge
On October 26 2006 a Chinese diesel-electric submarine of the “Song” class surfaced at a distance of just 5 nautical miles from the US carrier “Kitty Hawk”, south of Okinawa, without previously been detected! This impressive piece of news which made its way to the headlines around the world, made me look for a good book on the PLAN’s expanding submarine fleet, and Peter Howarth’s work proved to be the best choise. The book has it all: it is very recently published, it is grounded on solid facts and hard study of alla available sources and it contains the strategic, the operational and the tactical view of the subject. The author gives convincing (and very astonishing sometimes) answers to a plethora of questions, like: Why China gives so much emphasis to her Navy? Who had the idea to shift PLAN’s ambitions from a poor quality coastal defence force to a real blue water navy? Why did the Chinese reversed that course after the 1991 Gulf War and why did the freeze the construction (or purchase) of a carrier fleet? What’s the level of training of the PLAN’s submarine crews? What kind of problems did the Chinese face with the first quartet of “Kilo” class submarines they purchased from Russia? Why is their only SSBN (“Xia” class) a practically useless “sitting duck”? What are the really impressive characteristics of the new submarines currently under construction in China? Why it’s not really necessary to make an amphibious assault in order to bring Taiwan to its knees? What advantages give the marine enviroment of China’s coasts to a diesel-electric submarine against a nuclear powered one? How did the Chinese naval strategists learn from the Soviet Navy’s experiences during the Cold War? How do they plan to seize Taiwan? What are Beijing’s far strategic goals? Are the US carriers really vulnerable to Chinese submarines? This is an excellent book for everyone interested in the troubled naval situation of the Pacific today.
Conents are:
Introduction
China’s tactical submarine fleet
The geopolitical context
China’s new maritime strategy
Sea control of the western Pacific
Maritime strategic theory and the logic of China’s subamrine fleet
Geography, narrow seas and submarine terrain
Disputing US command of the China seas
The universal and the particular in strategic logic
Influence of the Soviet experience on the PRC’s maritime strategy
Chinese strategic culture – indigenous elements
Chinese srategic culture – submarines and prospects for war in the Taiwan Strait
Conclusion
Rating: 5 / 5
The title is a bit misleading because the book is more about potential of submarines than it is about the PLA Navy none the less it is a very good book. Simply said submarines are a cheap way to create a creditable navy. Submarines do not provide power projection, but they are a formidable foe against surface ships. In the past surface ships could evade subs with their speed, but with the advent of nuclear power, subs have an advantages over surface ships when they are submerged. He explains why the Soviet Union placed so much emphasis on submarines during the Cold War, and how they performed during both World Wars. The author also explains why Taiwan is so critical to China’s national security. All in all China’s Rising Sea Power is a good book for learning about the strategic value of submarines.
Rating: 4 / 5