Great Water Wall in South China Sea: Maritime Designs of China under Mahan’s Theory of Sea Power
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.lassij/4.2.22Keywords:
Rise of China, Water Wall, South China Sea, Sea Power, Maritime Power, Maritime Strategy, Maritime Policy, Seaborne TradeAbstract
Seas play a vital role in shaping and reshaping the course of global politics, from developing empires to new global orders. Virtually 80 percent of China’s trade resources passes through the Seas and mostly by South China Sea, so it has initiated developments in South China Sea, from building artificial island, light houses to air strips to secure its trade routes. The aim of the study is to clarify the assumptions that China is building a ‘sand wall’ or ‘water wall’ like great wall to secure its maritime trade. Descriptive, analytical approach has been adopted to study the marvel; Mahan’s theory of Sea power has been applied to quantify the developments made by China. It concludes that China is striving for naval supremacy as per Mahan’s theory along with synthesis of Mao’s ‘Active Defence’. Hence Peaceful and integrated strategies are required to minimize the implications of disruption of seaborne trade.
Metrics
References
Adie, W. A. (1972). Chinese strategic thinking under Mao Tse-tung. The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. ANU Press. http://sdsc.bellschool.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/2016-03/sdsc-adie.pdf
Andrew Erickson, L. G. (2011, April). When land powers look seaward. Maryland. http://www.andrewerickson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/erickson-goldstein-lord_when-land-powers-look-seaward_proceedings_201104.pdf
Ca, F. (2015). Demystifying China's economy development. China Social Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026666
Defence Intelligence Agency, (2018, November). China military power, modernizing: a force to fight and win. Washington, D.C. United States of America. https://www.dia.mil/portals/27/documents/news/military%20power%20publications/china_military_power_final_5mb_20190103.pdf
US Energy Information Administration (2018, February). China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest crude oil importer in 2017. https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1066163.pdf
David Finkelstein, E. M. (2005). Assessing China’s 2004 defence white paper: a workshop. Center for Naval Analyses, CNA Corporation. https://www.cna.org/CNA_files/PDF/D0019770.A3.pdf
Derek, W. (2015). What China has been building? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/30/world/asia/what-china-has-beenbuilding-in-the-south-china-sea.html
Dooley, H. (2012). The great leap outward: China’s maritime renaissance. The Journal of East Asian Affair, 26(1), 53-76. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23257908
Fensom, A. (2016, July). $5 trillion meltdown: what if China shuts down the South China Sea? National Interest. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/5-trillion-meltdown-what-if-chinashuts-down-the-south-china-16996
FM 3-0 Operations. (2017, December). Washington DC: US Department of Defence. https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-
Fravel, M. T. (April 23, 2019). Active defence: China's military strategy since 1949. Princeton University.
MI News Network (2019, October 11). Greece marks the top of most ship owning nations in 2018. https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/greece-marks-top-ship-owning-nations-2018/
Hayton, B. (2014). The South China Sea: the struggle for power in Asia. Yale University.
Hoffmann, J. (2010). The world maritime fleet in 2017. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. UNCTAD.
Holmes, J. (2014). Defend the first Island Chain. US Naval Institute.
Holmes, J. R. (2004). Mahan a place in the Sun and Germany’s quest for sea power. Comparative Strategy, 23, 27-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/01495930490274490
Holmes, T. Y. (2006). The influence of Mahan upon China’s maritime strategy. Comparative Strategy 24(1), 23-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/01495930590929663
CSIS (2017, October). How much trade transits the South China Sea? https://chinapower.csis.org/much-trade-transits-south-china-sea/
Kaplan, R. (2014). Asia's Cauldron: the South China Sea and the end of a stable Pacific. Random House.
Khalilzad, Z. (2001). The United States and Asia. RAND Corporations.
King, H. J. (1990, April). The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783. Naval War College: https://archive.org/stream/influenceofhisto00maha/influenceofhisto00maha_djvu.tx
Kurlantzick, J. (2006). China’s charm: implications of Chinese soft power. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/files/PB_47_FINAL.pdf
Lexiong, N. (2005). Sea Power and China’s development. Liberation Daily.
Lexiong, N. (2007). Historical necessity for the transition from land power to sea power. World Economics and Politics.
Lloyd's List Annual Top 100 Ports. (2017, June). http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/top-50-world-container-ports.
Mackinder. (1944). The geographical pivot of history. The Geographical Journal, 23(4), 421-437. https://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?do=download&did=74431&kod=JPM620
Mahan, A. T. (1905). The problem of Asia: its effect upon international politics. Transaction.
Mahan, A. T. (2011). The influence of sea power upon history, 1660-1783. Cambridge University.
UNCTAD (2015). Review of maritime transport. United Nations Conference on trade and development. https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/rmt2015_en.pdf
Robert C. Beckman et al, I. T.-G. (2013). Beyond territorial disputes in the South China Sea: legal frameworks for the joint development of hydrocarbon resources. Edward Elgar.
Sempa, F. P. (2000). Mackinder's world. American Diplomacy, V. https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/
Shee Poon, K. (1998, March). The South China Sea in China's strategic thinking. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 19(4), 369-387.
Shicun Wu, M. V. (2016). UN convention on the law of the Sea and the South China Sea. Routledge.
Sou, Y. h. S. (Ed.). (2015, July). Major law and policy issues in the South China Sea: European and American Perspectives. Ashgate.
Sprout, M. T. (n.d.). ‘Mahan: evangelist of sea power.’ In Makers of Modern Strategy: Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler. Princeton.
Tønnesson, S. (2015, June). The South China Sea: law trumps power. Asian Survey, 55(3), 455-477. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/as.2015.55.issue-3
Tse-tung, M. (1936, December). Problems of strategy in China's revolutionary war. Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Maoist Documentation Project. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-
Tung, C. Y. (2005, September). Overview of Chinese Economic Reforms: Initiatives, Approaches and Consequences. National Chengchi University, Taiwan.
Ünay, S. (2013). From engagement to contention: China in the global political economy. Perceptions, XVIII(1), 129-153. http://www.sam.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/perceptions_2013_spring.pdf#page=133
Yoshihara, J. H. (2006, July/August). Mao Zedong, meet Alfred Thayer Mahan: strategic theory and Chinese sea power. Australian Defence Force Journal, 171. https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=200700786;res=IELAPA, ISSN: 1320-2545
Yoshihara, J. H. (2010, December). China’s navy: a turn to Corbett? Maryland: The United States Naval Institute. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2010/december/chinas-navy-turn-corbett
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Tatheer Zahra Sherazi, Arif Khan, Hashmat Ullah Khan

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Licensing & Copyright Policies
Articles in LASSIJ-IDEA are Open Access contents published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) http://
The copyright policy of LASSIJ-IDEA is based on a non-exclusive publishing agreement, according to which the journal retains the right of first publication, but the author(s) are free to subsequently publish their work. The copyright of all work rests with the author(s).
The users may use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article(s) provided that the author(s) are attributed as the original creators and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes, i.e., research or other educational use. Authors are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the various creative commons licenses.
Readers are advised to consult the licensing information embedded in each published work to ensure that they are familiar with the terms of use that apply.