This monograph examines China's approach to using sea power to defend and advance its maritime claims in the East China Sea and South China Sea. This approach, which Chinese strategists sometimes called "echelon defense," involves the use of non-military instruments of sea power--especially maritime law enforcement forces--to vie with other states for control over disputed maritime space. These non-military forces operate on the first line (or echelon) of China's expanding frontier. Behind them, on the second line, China employs naval forces to deter foreign leaders from using force, thereby compelling them to compete on China's own terms. The echelon defense approach allows China to gradually achieve its objectives without risking a conflict or giving other great powers such as the United States sufficient grounds to intervene. Since 2006, when this approach was pioneered, it has enabled China to expand its influence and control in maritime East Asia. But it has also harmed China's relations with its neighbors and other great powers.

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Ryan D. Martinson is Assistant Professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute at the
Naval War College. He holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University and a bachelor’s of science from Union College. Martinson
has also studied at Fudan University, the Beijing Language and Culture University,
and the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. He previously served as deputy director of the China
Exchange Initiative.