The following is the Aug. 30, 2019 Congressional Research Service report, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities — Background and Issues for Congress.
From the report
In an international security environment characterized as one of renewed great power competition, China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has become thetop focus of U.S. defense planning and budgeting.China’s navy, which China has been steadily modernizingfor...
Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning underway. PLAN Photo
While Washington defends its Navy’s transits through disputed waters in the South China Sea as upholding international freedom of navigation, Beijing blasts these operations as provocative and clear violations of its domestic law, a leading Chinese naval expert said last week; and both positions could harden.
The U.S. needs to consistently transit through contested waters around the globe, not one-offs solely in the South China Sea, said Adm....
https://news.usni.org/2019/07/29/panel-u-s-china-south-china-sea-tensions-show-no-signs-of-easing
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson meets with People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Commander Vice Adm. Shen Jinlong and other senior Chinese defense officials at the PLAN headquarters in Beijing on Jan. 14, 2019. US Navy Photo
As officials in Washington and Beijing charged each other with ratcheting-up the militarization of the South China Sea recently, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson discussed ways to decrease risk in the region during a video teleconference with his...
USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) is anchored off the coast of Honduras as part of an 11-week medical support mission to Central and South America as part of U.S. Southern Command’s Enduring Promise initiative on Dec. 6, 2018. US Navy Photo
USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) departed Naval Station Norfolk,Va., for a five-month deployment to provide medical assistance to the Caribbean and South America on Friday.
Comfort is scheduled to visit several nations, but the primary mission of this deployment is to provide...
https://news.usni.org/2019/06/14/hospital-ship-usns-comfort-departs-for-southcom-deployment
Chinese sailors watch a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warship pull into Djibouti. Xinhua Photo
China’s rise as a naval power goes well beyond its growing number of ships and submarines but the People’s Liberation Army Navy growing capability to operate jointly with the Chinese air force and rocket corps, a maritime intelligence expert said Tuesday.
Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., James Fannell, a retired Navy captain, said, “we need to respect that” growth in...
USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) is anchored off the coast of Honduras as part of an 11-week medical support mission to Central and South America as part of U.S. Southern Command’s Enduring Promise initiative on Dec. 6, 2018. US Navy Photo
Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) is excepted in June to start a five-month Caribbean deployment to provide humanitarian and medical assistance to the region, notable to refugees flooding into Colombia from neighboring Venezuela.
Comfort’s departure will mark the...
https://news.usni.org/2019/05/07/usns-comfort-heading-to-colombia-to-treat-venezuelan-refugees
Landing craft deploy PLA Marines during Joint Sea 2015 II. Chinese MoD Photo
THE PENTAGON – The Chinese military is reorganizing its land forces, but its moves do not increase its ability to mount a large-scale beach assault across the Taiwan Strait, according to a new Department of Defense report.
Taiwan is the primary focus of amphibious assault and sea-based missile launch capability improvements made in 2018 by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the PLA Navy and PLA Marine Corps,...
Navy file photos of guided-missile destroyers USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110) (top) and USS Stethem (DDG-63) (bottom).
Navy file photos of guided-missile destroyers USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110) (top) and USS Stethem (DDG-63) (bottom).Two U.S. guided-missile destroyers conducted a transit through the strait separating Taiwan and mainland China on Sunday, U.S. 7th Fleet officials told USNI News on Monday.
USS Stethem (DDG-63) and USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110) passed through the...
Sailors remove chalks and chains from a MH-60R Seahawk, assigned to the “Easyriders” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 37, Detachment ONE, during flight quarters aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG-88). Navy photo
THE PENTAGON – Two U.S. guided-missile destroyers conducted a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) past South China Sea land masses claimed by China but not recognized as islands by international law.
Monday, USS Spruance (DDG-111) and...
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson delivers remarks at Atlantic Council on Feb. 6, 2019. US Navy Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The chief of naval operations upped his rhetoric regarding Russian and Chinese “gray-zone” aggression, saying the Navy needed to put pressure on Russia instead of passively reacting to the European competitor and calling for more “muscular” enforcement of rules of the sea when it comes to China.
Adm. John Richardson said at the Atlantic Council today that the Navy...