Andrew S. Erickson

At CMSI, we don’t just write timely “promotion reports” and “obituaries” when PLA Navy Admirals have major career developments. We also try to look forward & track rising stars—such as VADM Cui Yuzhong in this Note. We aim, at our best, to be the analytical equivalent of Wayne Gretzky, “skating to where the puck is […]

Conor M. Kennedy, The Seafarer Profession in Contemporary China, China Maritime Report 51 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 24 February 2026).

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From CMSI Director Christopher Sharman:
China Military Maritime Watchers: China’s ability to move forces, fuel, and matériel at scale depends not only on ships—but on whether […]

Zong He, “What is the Significance of the PLAN Type 055 Destroyer Zunyi Task Force’s Distant Deployment to Australia?” CMSI Translation 27 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 23 February 2026).

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From CMSI Director CAPT Christopher H. Sharman, USN (Ret.):
China Navy Watchers: Chinese Navy (PLAN) operations around Australia […]

Each semester, the Fairbank Center Collection of the H. C. Fung Library at Harvard University selects new publications for acquisition. CMSI is honored that, as part of its Winter/Spring 2026 acquisitions, the Fung Library selected the latest CMSI edited volume, “Chinese Amphibious Warfare: Prospects for a Cross-Strait Invasion,” for inclusion in its world-class collection. This […]

The Legal Struggle for China’s Maritime Power: Strategy, Sovereignty, and Enforcement, CMSI Quarterly Review 1.3 (February 2026) (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 17 February 2026).

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From CMSI Director Christopher Sharman:
China Military Maritime Watchers: How does maritime law become an instrument of power and influence?
The China […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “The China Navy Leadership: Corruption & Capabilities Bookshelf,” China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国, 17 February 2026.

Since Xi assumed power in 2012, scores of flag and general officers and defense industry leaders have been removed. This is part of a larger pattern across China’s entire Party-State-Military bureaucracy. By my earlier tally, Xi-era […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Tracking China’s ‘Little Blue Men’—A Comprehensive Maritime Militia Compendium,” China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国, 16 February 2026.

American and Allied knowledge of the PRC’s Third Sea Force has come a long way since my outstanding former Naval War College colleague Professor Conor Kennedy and I began our focused research following his arrival in […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Targeting Taiwan Under Xi: China’s Military Forest Flourishing Despite Toppling Trees,” Harvard Fairbank Center Blog Post, 12 February 2026.
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Explaining the PLA Paradox under Xi: Key Points

Personnel purges coexist with, and may even ultimately facilitate, PLA capability development to meet Xi’s Centennial Military Building Goal of 2027. […]

He Yin, “Sea Dragon Refits Its Armor: The Type 076 Amphibious Assault Ship Ushers in a New Era,” CMSI Translation 26 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 12 February 2026).

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From CMSI Director CAPT Christopher H. Sharman, USN (Ret.):
China Navy Watchers: China built its newest large amphibious warship […]

China and North Korea’s Yellow Sea activities illuminated as nowhere else!

Check out the new Open Access edition of our book!
Published in Naval War College Professor Geoffrey Till’s Routledge Cass Series on Naval Policy & History and sponsored by the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy (KIMS), this volume offers:

1) An authoritative Preface by former Commander, U.S. Pacific […]

Over the past two decades, I have benefitted tremendously from my association with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) History Committee. With encouragement and insights from generous mentors and colleagues there, I have shared and honed my research by presenting nine papers in IAA History Symposia at seven International Astronautical Congresses around the world.
Thus inspired […]

China’s making a big splash in the Western Hemisphere! Ryan Martinson shows how the world’s largest blue-water marine scientific research fleet operates globally, including in Latin America, undermining coastal state and American interests more broadly. Don’t miss Ryan’s unique appendix cataloguing these important but understudied ships!
Ryan D. Martinson, “China’s Blue-Water Research Fleet: Science in Service […]

Robert Leslie and Chris Panella, “Chinese Fishing Boats Have Been Making Some Unusual Moves Lately in the East China Sea, Satellite Images and Shipping Data Show,” Business Insider, 30 January 2026.

“The scale, geometry, coordination, and rapid assembly and dispersal of these formations are simply irreconcilable with normal fishing behavior,” Andrew S. Erickson, a professor at the US […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Zhang Youxia’s Road(s) to Removal Under Xi,” China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国, 27 January 2026.

Insightful analysis of General Zhang Youxia (张又侠)’s purge by K. Tristan Tang just out in Jamestown China Brief.
Unique firsthand details from Drew Thompson.

Read together, they suggest a talented top PLA leader whose power, connections, and initiative became […]

No small thing for the Central Military Commission’s #2 (behind Xi) & #4 to be investigated. And we all know how publicly-announced PRC investigations turn out…
To make sense of this major revelation, here’s some background & context on “corruption” vs. capabilities in China’s Navy & military more broadly, including regarding Taiwan per Xi’s Centennial Military […]

Chris Buckley, Agnes Chang and Amy Chang Chien, “Thousands of Chinese Fishing Boats Quietly Form Vast Sea Barriers,” New York Times, 16 January 2026.
My overall thoughts:

The vessels’ highly systematic formation cannot be explained by fishing.
Trawlers would not risk competing for fish or snarling their lines in relatively close quarters.
This blockade-line-type formation seems much more likely to be an […]

CMSI Quarterly Review 1.2 (Winter 2026) (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 8 January 2026).

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From CMSI Director Christopher Sharman:
We are pleased to share the Fall/Winter double issue of the CMSI Quarterly Review, highlighting the China Maritime Studies Institute’s latest scholarship, media engagement, and institutional activities from August through […]

Gordon Arthur, “Pentagon Outlines the Growing Threat Posed by the PLA,” Asian Military Review, 9 January 2026.

Dr. Andrew Erickson, Professor of Strategy at the US Naval War College, noted one important revelation in the 2025 Pentagon report. It surrounds confirmation that China has fielded the conventional DF-27 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The DF-27 features both […]

Unfolding events have made me reflect on Iran through both research and personal family history.
My grandfather oversaw Grumman’s F-14 program in Iran in the 1970s. The stories that stayed with him—especially the extraordinary kindness shown by ordinary Iranians during the upheaval of 1979—shaped how I came to understand Iran’s people and culture.
I place those experiences […]