China Sea

The Silk Road may be one origin of globalization, but the Indian Ocean is another. Barry Cunliffe examines the beginning of maritime trade using the evidence of archaeology and the tales of great travelers such as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and the Chinese Admiral, Zheng He. This story complements that of the land routes, showing how humans have been driven across thousands of years to create and maintain networks whatever the difficulties.

Bobby MacPherson, seaman second class, only 17 years old and freshly graduated from radio operator school, was naively excited by his assignment to the submarine S-37 stationed with the Asiatic Fleet. The exotic places providing bases for the American Navy - Manila, Shanghai, Tsingtao - and their strange cultures, histories, and people engaged his driving curiosity and sharp mind.

Commanding a combined US-South Korea force, the newly promoted US Navy hero Dan Lenson wonders if his embattled group can possibly keep sea lanes open in the Central Pacific as he tries to turn the tide and buy time for the Allies to regroup. But when his own flagship comes under ferocious attack, he must leave it to assume command elsewhere - without knowing when he'll be able to return. In the meantime, SEAL operator Teddy Oberg, escaping from a hellish POW camp, heads west through desolate mountains toward what he hopes will be freedom.

While Admiral Dan Lenson motorcycles across a post-Armageddon US in search of his missing daughter, his wife, Blair Titus, lands in a spookily deserted, riot-torn Beijing to negotiate the reunification of Taiwan with the rest of China and try to create a democratic government. But a CIA-sponsored Islamic insurgency in Xianjiang province is hurtling out of control. Andres Korzenowski, a young case officer, must decide whether ex-SEAL Master Chief Teddy Oberg - now the leader of a ruthless jihad - should be extracted, left in place, or terminated.

From 1949 to 1950, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) made crucial decisions to establish a navy and secure China's periphery. The civil war had been fought with a peasant army, yet in order to capture key offshore islands from the Nationalist rival, Mao Zedong needed to develop maritime capabilities. Mao's Army Goes to Sea is a ground-breaking history of the founding of the Chinese navy and Communist China's earliest island-seizing campaigns.

Der Schotte Dirk Struan gelangt an Bord eines Handelsschiffes nach China und steigt dort zum Oberhaupt von Struan & Company auf, dem mächtigsten Handelshaus in Asien. Vor dem Hintergrund der Gründung der britischen Kolonie Hongkong wagt Struan alles, um sein Imperium zu sichern und auszubauen. Er navigiert durch ein Geflecht aus politischen Intrigen, rivalisierenden Handelshäusern und den sensiblen Beziehungen zu den chinesischen Behörden.

Calm, stoic captain Mac Whirr has just been given command of a new steamship, the Nan-Shan. He and his crew are transporting Asian workers across the China Sea when a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure alerts Whirr of "some uncommonly dirty weather knocking about". Soon the steamship is caught in the midst of a vicious typhoon. The impending disaster brings out the best and the worst in Whirr; Jukes, the chief mate; Solomon, the wise engineer; and the rest of the crew.

Admiral Lenson leads Operation Rupture, the invasion of South China, in a bid to finally end the war and restore peace. Meanwhile, Captain Cheryl Staurulakis fights to take a radical new “super ship” to sea, even though its power and capability may introduce more risk than reward.

Out in the Pacific Ocean, there is a war taking place. It is a "warm war", a shoving match between the United States, since World War II the uncontested ruler of the seas, and China, which now possesses the world's largest navy. The Chinese regard the Pacific, and especially the South China Sea, as their ocean, and they're ready to defend it. Each day the heat between the two countries increases as the Chinese try to claim the South China Sea for their own, and the United States insists on asserting freedom of navigation.

You may have seen a bird holding branches in its beak in order to build its nest, but have you ever seen a bird picking up pebbles to throw into a vast expanse of water? There was indeed such a bird in ancient China.

China loomed large on the world stage. Wealth, power, and hundreds of years of rule by the Manchus of the Qing Dynasty catapulted them to new heights, but with power and prestige came those who would do anything to usurp their authority and undermine their sense of stability. The British Empire and its faithful allies devised a masterful plan and executed it with stark precision. Vicious lies, cheating, and stealing were only the beginning of what they had in store for the nation.