China’s Maritime Strategy to Secure its Future

This book examines China’s maritime strategy, which aims to dominate and leverage the world’s oceans to secure its national interests. Offering a comprehensive assessment of China’s initiatives across the various domains of national power, the work addresses the various actors – countries, companies, councils, and commissions – involved in, and affected by, China’s machinations. This includes all the relevant regions, commercial sectors, legal frameworks, trade relationships, and distinct areas of competition that include military, diplomatic, economic, technological, and financial/foreign investment interactions. The book documents China’s efforts to coopt global “goods,” like reduction of carbon emissions, with unfair and even immoral practices that price Western competitors out of key markets, thereby establishing China as the near-sole provider of raw materials, manufacture, assemblage, and finished products made possible by its exploitation of the seas and sea-borne trade. It also documents how skillfully China weaves the threads of government, commerce, academia, private-sector research, finance, and military activities into a single tapestry of maritime domination. In sum, this book clearly conveys China’s methodical, persistent, and aggressive approach to securing its economic, political, and security interests associated with the world’s oceans and seas. This book will be of interest to students of naval power, maritime security, Chinese politics, and international relations.