Mao Goes Maritime

The 2025 article marks a significant evolution. It adapts Maoist strategy as a framework for far-seas operations, showing how a weaker force might offset U.S. advantages through asymmetric means. In doing so, it envisions not only countering intervention in a Taiwan conflict, but also protecting China’s global maritime interests. The application of Mao’s doctrine at sea signals ambitions well beyond regional defense—toward a PLAN capable of contesting influence across the world’s oceans.Once in place, these seemingly civilian platforms, operating in coordination with military forces, would be poised to exploit U.S. vulnerabilities in wartime. They would target critical nodes and weak...