China: Closing the Gap in Anti-Submarine Warfare

China needs to defend itself from hostile submarines. Its goals of gaining regional power while protecting the mainland require a maritime strategy in the Western Pacific, especially in the areas Chinese military planners call the two island chains. The first island chain encircles the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea. The second stretches from Japan to Indonesia. Beijing thus needs to develop robust anti-submarine warfare capabilities to keep submarines out of the first island chain, where many mainland and naval targets would be in range of attack....