ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits the understanding of maritime security from both Western and Chinese perspectives. It has also provided a framework, which consists of five components, to study maritime security strategy in China. Maritime security in China has not been a popular field of study until the past 20 years. China, as a civilization, used to demonstrate slow overseas expansion. A typical study of China’s maritime security is narrowly defined as its naval strategy. Maritime security has been a topical agenda in China’s geopolitics and regional security in the past 20 years. As shown, the study of Chinese maritime security has been extensive within and outside of China. China’s maritime security has been a popular case study in the field of IR and Chinese foreign policies. In the case of China’s maritime security strategy, defensive realists argue that China only aims to maintain the status quo for its sea power development.
