Tuesday, December 22, 2020 | 4:00 PM EST - 5:00 PM EST
Zoom webinar | Michael McDevitt
China’s President Xi Jinping is committed to two primary military ambitions: he wants China to become a great maritime power by 2035 and a world-class armed force by 2050. In China as a Twenty First Century Naval Power, retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt focuses on China’s navy and its recent and continuing transformation into a formidable force.
Mr. McDevitt begins the book by exploring the strategic rationale behind President Xi’s objectives. He then examines the PLA Navy’s role in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and concludes with a forecast of what President Xi’s vision of a “world-class navy” might look like in the next fifteen years as the 2035 deadline approaches.
On December 22, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, USN (retired) to describe the development of China’s navy, implications for the U.S. military and policy-makers more broadly.
Michael McDevitt
Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, USN (retired), is a senior fellow at CNA, a Washington, D.C.-area non-profit research and analysis organization. He has been involved in U.S. security policy and strategy in the Asia-Pacific for the last three decades, both in government policy positions and, following his retirement from the U.S. Navy, as an analyst and commentator. He served as a congressionally appointed Commissioner on the U.S.-China Economic and Security and Review Commission (2017-19), and his book, China as a Twenty First Century Naval Power, was recently published by the US Naval Institute Press.
During his 34-year navy career he had four commands at sea, including an aircraft carrier battle group. His last assignment before retirement was a Commandant of the National War College in Washington, D.C.
He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and Georgetown University where he focused on U.S.-East Asian diplomatic history. He also attended the National War College and spent a year as a Chief of Naval Operations Fellow on the Strategic Study Group at the Naval War College.
