For the second year in a row, much of the world remained constrained by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the growth the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has enjoyed over the past two decades continued. Not satisfied with just adding more platforms and weapon systems to the world’s largest navy, the PLAN expanded operations at sea, including complex war-at-sea exercises, showing the Chinese flag around the Indo-Pacific, threatening Taiwan, and—perhaps most important—conducting combined exercises with Russia in the Far East waters around U.S. allies and bases in Japan.
Premium Member-Only Content
Don't miss out. Become a member of the Naval Institute today.
1. Commander Salamander, “Fullbore Friday: Give Credit Where Credit <Spit> Is Due,” cdrsalamander.substack.com, 7 January 2022.
2. Guo Yuandan, “Three New Warships Commissioned to PLA Navy, Creating Three ‘Firsts,’” PLA Daily, 25 April 2021.
3. Liu Xuanzun, “PLA’s First Amphibious Assault Ship Passes Multidimensional Landing Combat Assessment,” Global Times, 7 December 2021.
4. Xuanzun, “PLA’s First Amphibious Assault Ship.”
5. Liu Xuanzun, “PLA Amphibious Assault Ship Hainan Stages Chopper Drill, Shows Confidence in Performance,” Global Times, 22 June 2021.
6. Liu Xuanzun, “China’s Newly Commissioned Amphibious Landing Ship Joins Exercises ‘to Form Powerful Partnership With Amphibious Assault Ship,’” Global Times, 6 May 2021.
7. Minnie Chan, “China’s New Nuclear Submarine Missiles Expand Range in U.S.: Analysts,” South China Morning Post, 2 May 2021.
8. Annual Report to Congress: Military and Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2020), 45.
9. Annual Report to Congress: Military and Developments, VI.
10. CAPT James E. Fanell, USN (Ret.), “China’s Global Navy-Today’s Challenge for the United States and the U.S. Navy,” Naval War College Review 73, no. 4 (Fall 2020): 25.
11. Roderick Lee and Morgan Clemens, China Maritime Report No. 9: Organizing to Fight in the Far Seas, The Chinese Navy in an Era of Military Reform, Navy War College China Maritime Studies Institute, October 2020.
12. Liu Xuanzun, “UPDATE: PLA Aircraft Carrier, Type 055 Destroyer Hold Exercise near Taiwan island amid U.S. Warship Provocations,” Global Times, 5 April 2021.
13. Liu Xuanzun, “PLA’s Type 055 Destroyer Enters Sea of Japan for 1st time,” Global Times, 19 March 2021.
14. Ken Moriyasu, “Chinese Aircraft Carrier and 5 Ships Pass Okinawa on Way to Pacific,” Asian Nikkei, 5 April 2021.
15. Brad Lendon, “China Flanks Taiwan with Military Exercises in Air and Sea,” CNN, 7 April 2021.
16. “Chinese Naval Aircraft Carrier Battle Group Conducts Maritime Training,” PLA Daily, 6 May 2021.
17. Liu Xuanzun, “PLA Holds Mock Battle between Carrier-Borne, Land-Based Aircraft over Yellow Sea,” Global Times, 11 May 2021.
18. H. I. Sutton, “China’s New Super Carrier: How It Compares to the U.S. Navy’s Ford Class,” Naval News, 2 July 2021.
19. “China-Russia Joint Naval Exercise Kicks Off,” PLA Daily, 15 October 2021.
20. “China-Russia Naval Exercise Enters Stage of Joint Anti-Submarine Drills,” PLA Daily, 18 October 2021.
21. “Chinese, Russian Warships Jointly Pass Japan Chokepoint for 1st Time,” Asian Nikkei, 19 October 2021.
22. “Chinese, Russian Warships Pass through Osumi Strait for 1st Time,” Kyodo News, 23 October 2021.
23. Thomas Newdick, “Now China Has Cruise Missile Carrying Catamarans Chasing Away Ships in the South China Sea,” The War Zone, 8 April 2021; Jim Gomez and Aaron Favila, “AP Exclusive: U.S. Admiral Says China Fully Militarized Isles,” Associated Press, 20 March 2022.
24. Andrew Greene, “Second Chinese Spy Ship Approaches Australia to Monitor Military Exercises after Being ‘on Our Radar for Some Time,’” ABC News (Australia), 17 July 2021.
25. Joseph Trevithick, “Chinese Warships Sailing near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands Shadowed by U.S. Coast Guard,” The War Zone, 13 September 2021.
26. “Japan Says Suspected Chinese Submarine Seen near Territorial Waters,” Reuters, 12 September 2021.
27. Liu Xuanzun, “PLA Practices Cross-Sea Troop Transport with Large Civilian Ferry,” Global Times, 17 October 2021.
28. “13 Years on: PLA Navy Continues Escorting in Gulf of Aden,” PLA Daily, 27 December 2021; “40th Chinese Naval Escort Task Force Departs for Gulf of Aden,” PLA Daily, 16 January 2022.
29. Marco Giannangeli, “Chinese Nuclear Attack Subs ‘Stalking’ Britain’s New Aircraft Carrier across Pacific,” The Express, 9 August 2021.