Crashback (Five Stars)

Anyone familiar with the People’s Liberation Army (and its small adjuncts, the PLAF and PLAN) during the 1980s found it hard to take seriously: most of its aircraft and ships belonged in museums. It intended to rely on human-wave attacks in the event of a full-scale war. If it wasn’t equipped with nuclear weapons, it would hardly be of concern at all.

That is not the PLA or the Chinese Navy now.

China has the advantage that Germany initially had during WWII: unburdened by “legacy” warships which were out of date and consumed resources more efficiently spent elsewhere, Germany concentrated instead on warships which would prove to be of more use to her, such as heavy cruisers capable of outrunning enemy task forces sent after them and U-boats of entirely new design. China was unburdened by a legacy fleet when it began building its first real blue water navy. It has built modern warships armed with a variety of anti-ship missiles. The U.S. Navy, on the other hand, has not developed a new anti-ship missile in decades and has, in fact, removed the missile magazines on some older ships, relying on “multipurpose guns” to take on other ships and other missions.

China has been on a collision course with the United States for some time. Claiming its Exclusive Economic Zone as territorial waters, China is bullying Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan into abiding by this “interpretation” of international law. China is also showing more and more of a willingness to take on the United States itself… where will this end?
Reads like a novel while it opens your eyes. Well-illustrated with maps and photographs.