This conference covered China’s major maritime forces beyond core People's Liberation Army navy units, with particular focus on China’s second and third sea forces: the “white-hulled” coast guard and “blue-hulled” maritime militia.
Increasingly, these paranaval forces, and the “gray zone” in which they typically operate, are where the greatest action is. Beijing works constantly in peacetime -- and possibly in crises short of major combat operations with the United States -- to “win without fighting” and thereby to further its unresolved land feature and maritime claims in the near seas. In short, these are operations conducted to alter the status quo without resorting to war, an approach that some Chinese sources term “war without gun smoke.”
There is an urgent need for greater understanding of this vital yet under-explored topic.
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