The rise of Chinese sea power in the late 1980s has brought great impact to Asia's regional stability. This dissertation will illustrate three major issues in systematically researching the rise of Chinese sea power. The first issue is that political and economic factors have influenced the growth of the PLA naval expansion for the past two decades. The second issue is that the impact of modern warfare, in such factors as the first Persian Gulf War, revolution in military affairs (RMA), the Taiwan Strait missile crisis in 1995-1996, the Kosovo war, and the Second Persian Gulf War (Iraq) have played key roles in enabling the PLAN transition. The third issue is that China views its territorial disputes and sovereignty as their major concerns in the new global security environment. The perception of the security environment of the Chinese, indeed, has also facilitated its naval build-up.; This dissertation will use the historical research and document analysis methods of available resources and interviews with Taiwanese and American PLA naval experts to examine the rise of Chinese sea power. The theory of sea power, undeniably, has influenced the development of the PLAN. However, sea power theory alone cannot fully explain the rise of Chinese sea power as the functions of politics & economy, military modernization, and the security environment because those factors have not only facilitated the naval development of the PLA, but also constrained the PLA naval expansion.; The systematic analysis of politics & economy, military modernization and security environment are critical to understand due to their integral linkage to the development of the PLAN. Through this systematic analysis, we see the rise of Chinese sea power in the 21st century is inevitable. The future development of the PLAN will bring a tremendous impact to regional and global context because of its continuous increase of naval power. Dependent of future international events, the rise of Chinese sea power could play a constructive or a disruptive role, therefore, the development of the PLAN truly deserves the attention and further systematic research.
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