HomeCASIArticles


      Welcome to the Department of the Air Force's China Aerospace Studies Institute   

CASI Banner

China Aerospace Studies Institute Article Search

China Aerospace Studies Institute Articles

  • PLAN Special Mission Aviation Air Base Renovation and Expansion Activities

    The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Naval Aviation forces have been undergoing a large scale divestment of its shore based aviation capabilities through 2023. However, since then, PLAN Aviation has clearly sought to retain not only is fixed wing anti-submarine warfare (ASW) assets, but also its

  • PRC Media’s Coverage of Mobility Guardian Projects Self-Confidence

    From 5 to 21 July 2023 Air Mobility Command conducted the exercise Mobility Guardian 2023 (MG23). MG23 was the largest iteration of the exercise, and it was the first iteration to be conducted outside the USA. It involved detachments from seven countries, and it spanned the Pacific Ocean

  • Trends That Impact Perceptions of the Chinese Space Program

    The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) intention to allow civilian astronauts and non-state-owned enterprise (SOE) companies to participate in the Chinese Space Station (CSS) are two trends that will probably change the global image of the Chinese space program, but which risk being overlooked with

  • China's ChatGPT War

    Earlier this year Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates stated ChatGPT, “will change our world” and is “as significant as the invention of the internet”  in an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt.   In the interview he focused on the way ChatGPT could impact the workplace.  Others, however,

  • PLA Naval Aviation Reorganization 2023

    In early 2023, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began transferring PLA Navy Aviation units to the PLA Air Force. By mid-2023, the PLA transferred the majority of PLAN fighter, bomber, radar, air defense, and airfield units to the PLA Air Force (PLAAF). In total, the PLA transferred at least three

  • The PLA Reconceptualizes Control of the Air

    The PLA is now promoting a more nuanced and modern understanding of control of the air. Consequently, the PLA is unlikely to seek command of the air in future military campaigns, and it is likely to reduce its spatial and temporal requirements for control of the air as its capabilities to conduct

  • Where are the PLA’s other laser dazzling facilities?

    In December 2022, U.S. researchers again updated their analysis of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) laser research, development, and testing facilities in the desert of China’s Xinjiang province.  This time, they described how their review of commercial satellite imagery had led them to

  • UK Cable on Tiananmen Square Massacre June 4th, 1989

    The Chinese army crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests killed at least 10,000 people, according to released declassified UK documents. The figure was given in a secret diplomatic cable from then British ambassador to China, Sir Alan Donald written on 5 June 1989.  The cable is in the UK

  • What is China Doing at the Lunar Distant Retrograde Orbit?

    Written by CASI's Kristin Burke, Originally published by The Space Review at: https://thespacereview.com/article/4365/1Click here for PDF versionChina’s Chang’e 5 (CE-5) orbiter, which as of January 2022 has likely moved to the lunar Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO), is probably conducting enabling

  • CASI Webinar: PRC Hypersonics Research Landscape

    As part of CASI's quarterly webinar series, we explored the hypersonics research landscape in China. This webinar was held in March of 2023 and is based on the recent publication by CASI and BPL. The views and opinions expressed in this webinar are the personal views of the participants, and do not

  • Competition with China: PLA Rocket Force

    Part of CASI's "Competition With China" video series which helps Airmen better understand the strategic competition with China broadly, and takes a deep look at many of the military and security aspects of that competition. CASI uses source documents to research and report on China’s aerospace

  • The PLA Hopes B-21 Will Follow in B-2’s Footsteps

    The B-21 was unveiled to the public on December 2, 2022. In the following two months several assessments of the B-21 were published in the media of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Almost all the articles avoided assessing the capabilities of the B-21

  • ITOW: Language Confrontation in Cognitive Domain Operations

         The “In Their Own Words” series is dedicated to translations of Chinese documents in order to help non-Mandarin speaking audiences access and understand Chinese thinking. CASI would like to thank all of those involved in this effort.     In the “In Their Own Words” series, CASI and its