The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2019 73 depth offered by the country’s enormous size. But whenmodern China looks seaward, it finds itself in a claustrophobic environ- ment, where crucial maritime trade routes could be threatened close to home. The authors argue that “Chinese anti-access efforts in the diplomatic, economic, legal, normative, andmilitary realms thus consti- tute a strategic danger of the first order to the United States and its allies.” An opportunity to break free of the first island chain has always loomed before the People’s Republic of China. The state of Taiwan is roughly at the midpoint of this archipelago. As the authors note: “If the island chain is a Great Wall in reverse, then regaining Taiwan would open a breach in the wall.” While comprehensive, Red Star Over the Pacific misses a key element of Chinese maritime strategy. The authors stress the particular importance of earning access as a major end goal of maritime strategy. Yet they neglect to draw attention to the major ports for which China is signing long-term leases in strategi- cally located states such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These Chinese-owned ports significantly enhance China’s maritime access across the Indian Ocean rim and feature prominently in its grand ambi- tions for developing infrastructure across the region. These far-flung projects commensurately increase the Chinese Navy’s responsibility for its relatively new “far seas protection” mission of defend- ing China’s interests abroad. Despite this, the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative lacks an entry in the book’s index. The second edition of Red Star Over the Pacific is an authoritative work on Chinese maritime power and naval strategy. To understand the maritime domain is to understand core elements of China’s historic transformation into a superpower. And through understanding naval strategy in the Indo-Pacific, the outline of how China could pose a serious military chal- lenge to U.S. regional hegemony becomes clearer. n Dmitry Filipoff is the publications coordi- nator for The Foreign Service Journal . He is also the director of online content for the Center for International Maritime Security.