Captain James E. Fanell, U.S. Navy (Retired), served as a career naval intelligence officer whose positions included the senior intelligence officer for China at the Office of Naval Intelligence and the chief of intelligence for CTF-70, 7th Fleet, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He retired from the Navy in 2015 and currently is a government fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, Switzerland.

Articles by James E. Fanell

Xi Jinping

PLA Navy Growth Not Slowed by COVID

By Captain James E. Fanell, U.S. Navy (Retired)
May 2022
Since January 2021, the Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated its continuing commitment to transform China into the world’s premier maritime power and to achieve its expansionist goals regionally.
CNO Admiral John Richardson (left) shakes hands with Admiral Wu Shengli, Commander of the PLAN, at Chinese Navy Headquarters in Beijing during a July visit—just five days after the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled against China in a South China Sea island territorial dispute. What signals do such engagements send to longtime U.S. allies?

Stop "Engagement at all Costs"

By Captain James Fanell, U.S. Navy (Retired)
September 2016
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral John Richardson’s visit to China, in the aftermath of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s (PCA’s) ruling on the South China Sea case between the ...