Publications

China Policy Monitor No. 1635

June 9, 2025 Joshua Eisenman

Rogue Devices Found in Chinese Solar Power Inverters;
U.S. To Revoke Visas of Students With CCP Connections;
PRC Institutions Lure Chinese Researchers From U.S. Universities;
China Issues New Policies To Channel Capital Into Tech Innovation;
Pakistan Uses PRC Hypersonic Missiles To Hit India's Air Defenses;

The Nine Gates of Power: China’s Passageways to the World Ocean

June 6, 2025 Kyle Kinnie American Foreign Policy Council

In December 2010, the Asahi Shimbun published a remarkable roadmap laying out the future trajectory of Chinese maritime expansion. In its analysis, the Shimbun outlined a geographically contingent thesis of Chinese geopolitical strategy—one on which the scholar Tetsuo Kotani elaborated further in a 2019 academic paper. Both publications argue that Chinese maritime access to the Pacific and Indian Oceans is effectively constrained through a series of islands and straits in the First Island Chain. These potential chokepoints constitute the “Nine Gates” through which Chinese maritime commerce and sea power must flow.