China As a Maritime Power ― The Formative Years: 1945-1983

The classic history of the founding and early development of modern China’s maritime power — now back in print.Hardly a week passes without headlines about China’s use of seapower in the Western Pacific, seapower that presents daunting challenges to the US Navy, Japan’s security, international shipping, and offshore oil claims. But it’s impossible to understand this change in the Asian balance of power without a grasp of where China’s modern seapower came from. Never superseded in its coverage and analysis of the foundations of modern China’s navy, merchant marine, and maritime development, China as a Maritime Power is still the definitive history of this little-known but critically important topic.Here you will find detailed accounts and analysis of —• The Soviet role in building the PRC navy; the effects of the Sino-Soviet split• Narratives of the offshore islands crises of the 1950s• How the PRC navy dealt with the Cultural Revolution and the Lin Biao coup• The PRC navy’s role in the Korean and Vietnam wars• The history of PRC claims to vast areas of the East and South China seas• The maritime policy positions of key Chinese political and naval figuresChina as a Maritime Power is unique in its use of archives of both declassified US intelligence reports and primary Chinese source materials.