Cole, Bernard D

Abstract
The article considers the history of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and its naval strategy in the 21st century. An overview of Chinese naval warfare history from roughly 550 BCE to the founding of the Communist Party government in 1949 is offered. The expansion and modernization of the PLAN from the 1980s to 2014 is examined in relationship to changes in China’s security policies advocating an increasingly strategic role for PLAN.
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