China has emerged as a major regional power and has clear aspirations to be a global power in the not too distant future. Comprehensive military modernisation programs, sustained economic, scientific and technological developments have substantially elevated China’s international profile. For the past three decades, China has been modernising its strategic weaponry and enhancing the capabilities of its nuclear warheads. It has also been developing new and complex military platforms that would be of great value to joint operations warfare. The decade from 2011 through 2020 will prove critical to the PLA as it attempts to integrate many new and complex platforms, and to adopt modern operational concepts, including network-centric warfare. China’s air force is in the midst of a transformation. A decade ago, it was an antiquated service equipped almost exclusively with weapons based on 1950s-era Soviet designs and operated by personnel with questionable training according to outdated employment concepts. Today, the PLAAF appears to be on its way to becoming a modern, highly capable air force for the 21st century. The PLA Air Force has continued expanding its inventory of long-range, advanced SAM systems and now possesses one of the largest such forces in the world. The January 2011 flight test of China’s next generation fighter prototype, the J-20, highlights China’s ambition to produce a fighter aircraft that incorporates stealth attributes, advanced avionics, and super-cruise capable engines over the next several years. China is upgrading its B-6 bomber fleet with a new, longer-range variant that will be armed with a new long-range cruise missile. China’s aviation industry is developing several types of airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft. These include the KJ-200, based on the Y-8 airframe, for AWACS as well as intelligence collection and maritime surveillance, and the KJ-2000, based on a modified Russian IL-76 airframe. China can decisively defeat India in any nuclear confrontation, but is currently unable to match the IAF in any conventional conflict, specifically along the border region of the Himalayas. Also, the IAF has greater experience than PLAAF in actual combat operations with its many conflicts; India is gradually building powerful military capabilities in tune with its expanding geopolitical interests, even as the eastern and western fronts are being strengthened to deter the twin Pakistan-China threat. IAF is on the path to transform into a true aerospace power with the capability to rapidly deploy and operate at great distances. As for the two-front challenge, apart from progressively basing Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and missile squadrons in the two theatres, the plan also includes upgrading the airfields and advanced landing grounds in the sectors in order to give both defensive and offensive options. It is important for India to realise the relevance of Chinese achievements in space technologies and to critically view and analyse Chinese achievements in the area of manned space missions In order to achieve further success in the space arena, developments in cryogenic technology are important for India. These should be pursued in order to develop the capability of launching 4-5 ton satellites, which will help in achieving a greater commercial edge. Programmes like moon and mars missions, using robotic technologies, are also important in order to know more about the nature of resources, especially minerals, available on these bodies and undertaking their mining. It is also important to work towards launching satellites for India’s armed forces, which will help gain an advantage over adversaries. The book is an attempt to analyse the strategic importance of rising economic, political and military stature of China with a view to understand its regional and global implications in a new world order. As a rational actor in a chaotic world, China will defend its security interests at all costs. Besides undertaking a comprehensive modernisation of its armed forces, China is developing a series of offensive space capabilities while advocating the peaceful use of outer space. The book will be of immense value not only to the readers of the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of China, but to the strategic community across the globe since rise of China and other major Asian players including India will shape the strategic international environment in the decades to come during this century. It is hoped that the book will contribute to the understanding of the growing importance of integration of air and space and the fact that aerospace has truly become the new theatre of war and thereby establishing a new milestone in mankind’s history of warfare. The unifying space dimension will remain the single most important source for information and communication which can be used in multiple forms. Hence, China’s aerospace strategy and its implications for India assume greater military importance.

This book addresses why China is going into space and provides up- to-date information on all aspects of the Chinese Space Program in terms of launch vehicles, launch sites and infrastructure, crew vehicles for space exploration, satellite applications and scientific exploration capabilities. Beyond mere capabilities, it is important to understand how Chinese aerospace leaders think, how they make decisions, and what their ultimate goal is during their space endeavors. What are Chinese intentions in space? To what extent does culture and ethics influence Chinese strategic decision-making within the highest levels of the aerospace industrial complex? This book examines these questions and offers four potential scenarios on where the Chinese space program is headed based on this new perspective of understanding China’s space goals. This book is not only required reading for policy makers and military leaders in the US government, but also for the general population, students, and professionals interested in truly understanding the reasons behind what the Chinese are doing in space.

China's aircraft carrier program is making major waves well before the first ship has been completed. Undoubtedly, this development heralds a new era in Chinese national security policy. While the present volume presents substantial new insight on that particular question, its focus is decidedly broader in scope. Chinese Aerospace Power offers a comprehensive survey of Chinese aerospace developments, with a focus on areas of potential strategic significance previously unexplored in Western scholarship. The book also links these developments to the vast maritime battlespace of the Asia-Pacific region and highlights the consequent implications for the U.S. military, particularly the U.S. Navy.

This monograph assesses China's aerospace capabilities and the extent to which China's participation in commercial aerospace markets and supply chains is contributing to the improvement of those capabilities. It examines China's commercial aviation manufacturing capabilities, its commercial and military capabilities in space, Chinese government efforts to encourage foreign participation in the development of China's aerospace industry, transfers of foreign aerospace technology to China, the extent to which U.S. and other foreign aerospace firms depend on supplies from China, and the implications of these issues for U.S. security interests. China's aerospace industry has advanced at an impressive rate over the past decade, partly due to the increasing participation of its aerospace industry in the global commercial aerospace market and the supply chains of the world's leading aerospace firms. China's current ability to meet demand with indigenous aircraft is limited, however, and much of the demand will be filled by imported aircraft. China's space capabilities have improved rapidly, on the other hand, and it has developed and deployed an increasingly wide range of satellites. China's growing civilian aerospace capabilities are unquestionably contributing to the development of its military aerospace capabilities, but whether the United States could significantly improve its security through alterations of its policy toward civil aerospace cooperation with China without having a significant negative effect on its own economic interests is unclear.

Provides a comprehensive evaluation of how the Chinese aerospace technologies, industrial capability, the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and various other elements of air and space are getting into place. The book offers an understanding of the current status and unfolding future of Chinese aerospace power.

A variety of viewpoints is offered in this timely analysis of China's economy and the future shape of Beijing's energy consumption. The authors, all noted authorities in the fields of economics, diplomacy, energy, and defense, consider an unprecedented range of influences and factors to avoid the limitations of looking at the subject myopically or with political bias. They conclude that while energy insecurity could eventually lead to an arms race at sea or even a naval conflict that neither side wants, there is ample room for Sino-American energy dialogue and cooperation in the maritime domain.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) continues to develop rapidly across all aspects, hardware, technology, personnel, and organizational structure, etc. The PLA's aerospace forces are, in many ways, leading that change. These include the PLA Air Force (PLAAF), PLA Naval Aviation, PLA Rocket Force (PLARF), and space and cyber assets affiliated with the PLA Strategic Support Force (PLASSF). This second edition from the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), seeks to provide a brief primer on the trends affecting these forces and provide basic information about their composition and role today.This publication outlines the roles and missions of China's aerospace forces, the PLAAF and its five branches, the PLARF, and the PLASSF. It also identifies trends in PLA aerospace training and operational proficiency for these forces and discusses the near-term outlook. This publication is intended to serve as foundational work, capturing a snapshot of capabilities, and an outline of organizations and key personnel, while identifying trends underway at the time of its writing in early 2019.CASI supports the United States Defense Department and the China research community writ-large by providing high quality, unclassified research on Chinese aerospace developments in the context of U.S. strategic imperatives in the Indo-Pacific region. Primarily focused on China's Military Air, Space, and Missile Forces, CASI capitalizes on publicly available native language resources to gain insights as to how the Chinese speak to and among one another on these topics.With this second edition, CASI continues to describe the fundamentals in the field. Further research projects will expand on the framework laid out in this primer and will both expand and deepen public knowledge of developments in Chinese aerospace. While primarily focused on developments related to the services and branches of the PLA's aerospace assets and forces, CASI also explores topics and areas related to the support infrastructure, industrial base, and military-civil fusion, that combines together to form the overall China aerospace field.