China’s Air Power and Maritime Strategies Towards the Indian Ocean Region

Joshy M. Paul

This book examines China’s naval and airpower strategic direction towards the Indian Ocean region. It analyses China’s military modernization program along with naval and airpower capabilities including expeditionary nature. It analyses China’s attempt to gain a strategic dominance in the IOR by means of investments and trade with the littoral countries, military-diplomatic relationship with friendly countries, permanent presence of naval systems in the Indian Ocean and delivering ‘public goods’ throughout the region. A comparative analysis of People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) expeditionary capabilities and Indian Air Force’s (IAF) deterrence mechanisms is also included.

Joshy M. Paul worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Airpower Studies (CAPS), New Delhi, focusing on East Asia, Airpower and Indo-Pacific. He has eighteen years of research-cum-academic experience on Asian Security, East Asian Affairs, Airpower Dynamics and Maritime Security of the Indo-Pacific. Before joining CAPS, he worked as Assistant Professor at the Department of International Studies, Christ University, Bangalore, and also with a premier naval think tank, National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi. He has been an RSIS-MacArthur Associate Visiting Fellow (Singapore) in 2010, NIDS Visiting Research Fellow (Japan) in 2011, and Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow in 2009, 2015 & 2022.

Contents

Tables and Figures
Abbreviations
Introduction

1. China’s Grand Military Strategy
2. China’s Military Modernisation: Theory and Practice
3. China’s Air and Naval Capabilities
4. China and the Indian Ocean
5. PLAN’s Basing Strategy in the IOR: The ‘String of Pearls’
6. China’s MSR Asset Accumulations in the IOR
7. PLAN’s Indian Ocean Strategy Under Xi Jinping
8. A Comparison of the PLAAF’s and IAF’s Assets in the Indian Ocean
9. Conclusion
Index