Challenging the stereotype of premodern China as an agricultural nation, this book examines the development of the maritime sector, maritime institutions, and sea power in the premodern era. Initially discussing topics related to China's exports, such as ship design and construction, goods produced solely for export, capital accumulation and investment in the maritime sector, and trade networking, the volume goes on to consider the impact of maritime institutions, governmental trade and non-trade policies, and Confucian attitudes toward maritime activities. Finally, the book shows how China obtained technological, economic, and naval supremacy in Asian waters until the 18th century and goes on to discuss the reasons for the decline of the maritime sector in the 19th century.

This book is a valuable work of reference for the study of sea power, especially in China. It analyzes the challenges and problems facing China’s sea power and offers a complete set of solutions known as ‘sea exploitation.’ In this context, it discusses five aspects of China’s sea power: 1) It revises the notion of sea power and proposes a cost-benefit analysis framework for it. It holds that sea power is undergoing major changes, that multivariate completion and peaceful competition have become mainstream, that negative and zero-sum games have become positive sum games, and that the pursuit of control over the sea has gradually developed into efforts to establish dominance in a partnership. 2) By analyzing the increase in the benefits of China’s sea power, the rise in the nation’s ability-to-pay principle and the growth in the public expectation of China’s capability of providing global public goods, it points out that the rise of China’s sea power is an unavoidable trend. 3) It explores the challenges and problems facing China’s sea power, arguing that China is currently in a situation where it is daunted by large countries, troubled by small countries and its neighbors are expanding their armaments, which have combined to increase the cost of improving China’s sea power. Meanwhile, factors such as strategy vacuum, poor oceanic management and polices tending to restrict ocean development have substantially undermined the benefits of China’s sea power. 4) It summarizes features of China’s sea power and stresses that dilemmas of non-sovereign sea power expansion and sovereign sea power expansion, traumatic pressure and transcendental ideals, escalated conflict and peaceful appeal, etc. require China to articulate its stance on sea power on the one hand and possess the wisdom to resolve sea power problems peacefully on the other. 5) It proposes that China should draw on the experience of the Western Han Dynasty of ancient China, which adopted a land exploitation strategy and introduced a sea exploitation strategy, offering a unique way to implement sea exploitation strategies in China based on domestic and foreign practices.

This book examines the evolution of China’s maritime security strategy, and questions what has made China shift from a constrained to a more assertive strategy. Historically, China has not been an active player in maritime security, but in recent years Beijing has begun to pursue policies and measures to safeguard its maritime rights and interests in the Indo-Pacific region. This growing influence in the region has become a concern for other countries about what kind of sea power China is developing. This book seeks to address this concern by providing an overview of the development of China’s maritime security strategy from the era of Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping. It suggests that while the involvement of maritime actors and the development of naval capability have provided the depth to the strategy, the national strategic guidelines from each generation of Chinese leadership have determined the overall direction of the maritime security strategy. After 40 years of development, China has established a set of priorities for its maritime agenda: territorial integrity is at the top, followed by development, and then regional and international maritime cooperation. These findings help us to understand China’s multidimensional maritime power as being both assertive and cooperative. This book will be of much interest to students of naval strategy, maritime security, Chinese politics and International Relations.

In modern history, China has been primarily a land power, dominating smaller states along its massive continental flanks. But China’s turn toward the sea is now very much a reality, as evident in its stunning rise in global shipbuilding markets, its vast and expanding merchant marine, the wide offshore reach of its energy and minerals exploration companies, its growing fishing fleet, and indeed its increasingly modern navy. Yet, for all these achievements, there is still profound skepticism regarding China’s potential as a genuine maritime power. Beijing must still import the most vital subcomponents for its shipyards, maritime governance remains severely bureaucratically challenged, and the navy evinces, at least as of yet, little enthusiasm for significant blue water power projection capabilities. This volume provides a truly comprehensive assessment of prospects for China’s maritime development by situating these important geostrategic phenomena within a larger world historical context. China is hardly the only land power in history to attempt transformation by fostering sea power. Many continental powers have elected or been impelled to transform themselves into significant maritime powers in order to safeguard their strategic position or advance their interests. We examine cases of attempted transformation from the Persian Empire to the Soviet Union, and determine the reasons for their success or failure. Too many works on China view the nation in isolation. Of course, China’s history and culture are to some extent exceptional, but building intellectual fences actually hinders the effort to understand China’s current development trajectory. Without underestimating the enduring pull of China’s past as it relates to threats to the country’s internal stability and its landward borders, this comparative study provides reason to believe that China has turned the corner on a genuine maritime transformation. If that proves indeed to be the case, it would be a remarkable if not singular event in the history of the last two millennia.

Thomas Kane's study examines the formulation of naval strategy in the People's Republic of China and reveals the obstacles and challenges that planners face in their path towards a truly powerful and globally-influential, deep-sea navy.

Lo Jung-pang argues that during each of the three periods when imperial China embarked on maritime enterprises (the Qin and Han dynasties, the Sui and early Tang dynasties, and Song, Yuan, and early Ming dynasties), coastal states took the initiative at a time when China was divided, maritime trade and exploration subsequently peaked when China was strong and unified, and declined as Chinese power weakened. At such times, China's people became absorbed by internal affairs, and state policy focused on threats from the north and the west. These cycles of maritime activity, each lasting roughly five hundred years, corresponded with cycles of cohesion and division, strength and weakness, prosperity and impoverishment, expansion and contraction. In the early 21st century, a strong and outward looking China is again building up its navy and seeking maritime dominance, with important implications for trade, diplomacy and naval affairs. Events will not necessarily follow the same course as in the past, but Lo Jung-pang's analysis suggests useful questions for the study of events as they unfold and decades to come.

Maritime power has been a key defining parameter of economic vitality and geostrategic power of nations. This book explores how the first decade of the 21st century has witnessed the rise of China and India as confident economic powers pivoting on high growth rates, exponential expansion of science, technology and industrial growth.

This book conducts a comprehensive study on China's maritime strategy. It discusses the lessons of maritime power history that must be learnt by Chinese today, the relations between China's maritime strategy and domestic developing problems of China, the status and influence of maritime strategy from China's overall development strategy perspective, and the geopolitical targets of Chinese navy in 2050.China's maritime strategy is one of the most important academic and realistic subjects in the present and future. This book is the first book to discuss China's maritime strategy comprehensively in and outside China. It will give readers a better sense of why China has to develop its sea power, why it lays so much emphasis on Taiwan and the South China sea, why the country can make friends with India but not Japan, and why China's maritime strategy will never challenge America but has to face the pressure from America's maritime hegemony, and so on.

China’s Maritime Power dates back thousands of years. China has one of the oldest naval traditions in the world, dating from at least the end of the Warring States period in 221 BC. Nonetheless, China has historically been a continental state with a large ground force and only a coastal navy with limited blue water capability. The rise of modern day China raises considerable regional and security concerns, besides economic and political competition towards finding a rightful place in power politics of the South Asian Region and hence needs a critical analysis. There is a need to focus future strategies to deal with such challenges, both in the medium and long term. An effort to achieve the same has been undertaken in this book. The book is sure to stimulate further discussions on China’s navy and its ambitions.

This book analyses China’s maritime strategy for the 21st century, integrating strategic planning, policy thinking and strategic prediction. This book explains the construction and application of China's military, political, economic and diplomatic means for building maritime power, and predicts the future of China's maritime power by 2049, as well as development trends in global maritime politics. It explores both the strengths and the limitations of President Xi’s ‘Maritime Dream’ and provides a candid assessment of the likely future balance at sea between China and the United States. This volume explains and discusses China’s claims and intentions in the East and South China Seas and makes some recommendations for China's future policy that will lessen the chance of conflict with the United States and its closer neighbors. This book will be of much interest to students of maritime strategy, naval studies, Chinese politics and International Relations in general.