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  • China’s Different Approach to Space Situational Awareness

    This report attempts to answer two questions. First, what do Chinese authors writing in Chinese and English reveal about domestic satellites supporting space situational awareness (SSA). Second, given the available open-source information, in what ways does China’s approach to conducting space-based

  • Modernization of Fighter Pilot Training in the PLA Air Force Proceeds Apace

    In the past several months, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has reported and released information about new developments in its effort to modernize the PLA Air Force’s (PLAAF) training of prospective fighter pilots. One of the institutions that conduct that training, the Shijiazhuang

  • ITOW: Officer Basic Capability Training Guide

    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 collaborators aim

  • PLA Aerospace Force Base 37

    Base 37 is the PLA’s base for early warning and space situational awareness, likely now under the command of the PLA’s new Aerospace Force (PLAASF). Observable elements of Base 37 appear to be engaged in research on a wide array of space situational awareness (SSA) topics, and units directly

  • China can track GSSAP

    A Chinese technical assessment on the U.S. Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites from April last year revealed China’s deepening analysis of U.S. space domain awareness (SDA) capabilities.  The Chinese have moved beyond describing U.S. SDA systems, and have begun

  • Chinese Research in Space-Based Space Surveillance

         Space Surveillance is a subset and contributor to space situational awareness (SSA), which in turn, is a subset and contributor to space domain awareness (SDA). To clarify the purpose and scope of this paper, these three terms are defined and their relationships illustrated.      SDA is the

  • PLA Army Cross-Trains Pilots for Combat

    Recently the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reported that an army aviation unit has been cross-training its pilots to fly multiple types of helicopters. It is likely that the PLA Army is cross-training utility helicopter pilots to operate attack helicopters, and it is at least possible that

  • Reassessment of the CMC Member grade in the PLA

    Over the past 24 years, I have written multiple articles about the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) 15-grade structure, with an emphasis on how every organization, not just personnel, is assigned a grade.  While reviewing the announcements from the recent 3rd Plenum, where the Minister of National

  • Ongoing Organizational Reforms of the PLAAF

    From the chapter by Dr. Brendan S. Mulvaney and Ken Allen on the Ongoing Organizational Reforms of the PLAAF from Modernising the People’s Liberation Army: Aspiring to be a Global Military Power (available

  • ITOW: Hypersonic Vehicle Technology

         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

  • ITOW: Air Force Tactical Logistics

    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 collaborators aim

  • Tiananmen Square: The Declassified History - w/ postscript 2024

    The Chinese army crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests killed thousands of people, up to 10,000 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

  • China’s Space Capability and What This Means for the West

    The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has rapidly advanced in the space domain on several fronts simultaneously. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command testified in early 2024 that, “The PRC is moving breathtakingly fast in space. America must rapidly increase the timeliness, quality