China's Search for a Modern Air Force

Abstract

John Lewis and Xue Litai, both at Stanford University, address two central questions. First, why have Chinese efforts over the last half century to create a modern air force failed? Second, what lessons have the Chinese gleaned from these failures? Based on their findings, the authors conclude that China's air force has moved away from a strategy based on "active defense" and no first strike, adopting along the way Western notions of the role of air power in combat.