China's rising sea power : the PLA Navy's submarine challenge / Peter Howarth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Howarth, Peter, 1952 January 27-

Series:

Asian security studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Submarines (Ships)--China.

Submarines (Ships).

China--Military policy.

China.

Military policy.

Sea-power--China.

Sea-power.

Physical Description:

x, 198 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2006.

Summary:

Since the collapse of Soviet naval power China has become the operator of the world's largest tactical submarine fleet. As the world wonders what Beijing intends to do with its increasingly powerful and effective undersea warfare capacity, what does this mean for strategic stability in East Asia? This book addresses these questions by exploring similarities between China's strategic outlook today and that of earlier continental powers whose submarine fleets challenged dominant maritime powers for regional hegemony. Using insights from classical naval strategic theory it examines Beijing's strategic logic in making tactical submarines the keystone of China's naval force structure and investigates the influence of Soviet naval strategy and ancient Chinese military thought on the PLA Navy's strategic culture. It finally contends that China's increasingly capable submarine fleet could play a key role in Beijing's use of force to resolve the Taiwan issue. With attention focused on China's missile build-up opposite Taiwan, this timely volume reminds us that there is real danger in underestimating the potential of the PLA Navy's submarines to destabilise any future Taiwan Strait crisis.

This book will be of foremost interest to students of Chinese politics, Asian Security Studies and international relations in general, as well as to students in military colleges.

Contents:

1 China's tactical submarine fleet 15

2 The geopolitical context 21

3 China's new maritime strategy 41

4 Sea control in the western Pacific 57

5 Maritime strategic theory and the logic of China's submarine fleet 68

6 Geography, narrow seas and submarine terrain 86

7 Disputing US command of the China seas 96

8 The universal and the particular in strategic logic 113

9 Influence of the Soviet experience on the PRC's maritime strategy 117

10 Chinese strategic culture - indigenous elements 132

11 Chinese strategic culture - submarines and prospects for war in the Taiwan Strait 149.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-193) and index.

ISBN:

041536891X

OCLC:

58720853

Publisher Number:

9780415368919 (hbk.)