China’s contemporary national security imperative as envisioned by her apex leadership, makes it incumbent upon its defence forces to rapidly transform from mechanised warfare to informationised one; and conduct joint campaigns involving multiple services instead of single force operations.

This book is accordingly premised on the ongoing reality of the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) modernising at an accelerated pace, with the aim of becoming a force capable of countering world class adversary under informationised conditions by 2050; and the operational effectiveness of the Chinese defence forces getting enhanced manifold, if the Country is able to leverage certain high technologies in its national, maritime, and military domains, for combat use.

These emerging high-technologies include advances in artificial intelligence; space-based quantum communications; applications related to electromagnetic drives, such as rail guns and electromagnetic aircraft-launch systems; other niche weapons and platforms such as hypersonic weapons, anti-ship ballistic missiles, unmanned and artificial intelligence-enabled vehicles – UAVs, USVs and UUVs.

The book further discusses the impact of such high-technology-based Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region – specifically, security implications for India in her primary areas of maritime interests; and offers valuable recommendations for the Indian security-strategists, policymakers, scientific community, and maritime practitioners.