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Red Star Over the Pacific, Third Edition: China's Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy
432 pages, Paperback
Published March 24, 2026
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August 28, 2025
China and Putin are two subjects that get a lot of extremely poor analysis done by unqualified people trying to make a buck selling a book. This isn't one of them, and it is a stellar book on Chinese maritime strategy in the Pacific.
What impressed me particularly was the heavy quotations from Chinese military journals and military writings, and I always appreciate someone whose research includes actually reading the primary sources of their subject matter, and it's clear that this was done here. The five stars are easily earned for the research that was done and presented here.
The book was very eye-opening, for example, on Chinese missile doctrine and the military's attitude towards missiles. Did you know that the Falklands War is of particular interest in Chinese military circles ("the story of a set of nearby contested islands that are aligned to a distant, hostile great power" rings a bell, doesn't it)? Did you know that the Arab-Israeli wars are also of particular interest, in part for how Egyptian forces managed to sink the Eilat, an impressive Israeli destroyer, using a cheap missile?
Reading the book is like stepping into the world of the Chinese military and seeing things through their eyes. If one wants to understand what kind of war China is preparing for (and they are indeed preparing for one), this is a must-read.
What impressed me particularly was the heavy quotations from Chinese military journals and military writings, and I always appreciate someone whose research includes actually reading the primary sources of their subject matter, and it's clear that this was done here. The five stars are easily earned for the research that was done and presented here.
The book was very eye-opening, for example, on Chinese missile doctrine and the military's attitude towards missiles. Did you know that the Falklands War is of particular interest in Chinese military circles ("the story of a set of nearby contested islands that are aligned to a distant, hostile great power" rings a bell, doesn't it)? Did you know that the Arab-Israeli wars are also of particular interest, in part for how Egyptian forces managed to sink the Eilat, an impressive Israeli destroyer, using a cheap missile?
Reading the book is like stepping into the world of the Chinese military and seeing things through their eyes. If one wants to understand what kind of war China is preparing for (and they are indeed preparing for one), this is a must-read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review