China’s Rising Sea Power: The PLA Navy’s Submarine Challenge

This new book delivers a fascinating insight into China’s strategic abilities and ambitions, probing the real depths of its plans for the twenty first century. Why has China’s Navy inherited the Soviet Navy’s distinction of being the world’s largest operator of tactical submarines? Why is Beijing so intent on upgrading this fleet? Is the stage being set in East Asia for a contest for maritime supremacy pitting Chinese submarines against American aircraft carriers? Why does the U.S. Navy regard China’s submarines as one of its most formidable weapons? The book tackles these key 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: Germany in two world wars and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. 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. It investigates the influence of Soviet naval strategy and ancient Chinese military thought on the PLA Navy’s strategic culture. It 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, it also warns that there is a danger of underestimating the potential of the PLA Navy’s submarines to destabilise any future Taiwan Strait crisis. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of security and strategic studies, Asian Politics, Geopolitics and Military (Naval) Strategy.