Speaking of China's growing assertiveness, this Economist piece details the growing fascination Chinese military planners now have Alfred Thayer Mahan, one of the founders (with England's Mackinder) of geopolitics.  Thayer's views on naval power were the single greatest influence on America's naval and maritime policy.

Now China is exploring his lessons.  Obviously, this should not nbe a surprise as China's economic growth is forcing them to view their interests in increasingly broad ways and securing maritime trade routes (especially for energy supplies) is a priority.

This should not make anyone paranoid.  China is still a long way from America, but given our current decline in naval ships (to around half of what we had at the end of the Reagan years), we should also not be sanguine. 

This goes hand in hand with yesterday's post on managing China's competition.  Note this,

"Mercifully, it is not all preordained to end in a rerun of 1914. The task of economic development concentrates Chinese and Indian minds at home. Smaller Asian navies are expanding as a counterbalance to the big powers, and they have an interest in keeping hands off the choke-point of the Malacca Strait. And America remains the defining force in Asia, able for now to enforce the peace. But, even if history never repeats itself, the persistence of Mahan’s doctrines suggests the past likes to have a try."