CMSI Note #1: Admiral Hu to the Helm: China’s New Navy Commander Brings Operational Expertise

China’s Navy, the world’s largest by number of ships, has a new leader. On 25 December 2023, Commander-in-Chief Xi Jinping, in his capacity as Central Military Commission (CMC) Chairman, promoted Vice Admiral Hu Zhongming (胡中明) to Admiral and appointed him Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) (海军司令员). 2 Hu’s predecessor Admiral Dong Jun (董军) attended the promotion ceremony, suggesting this is an orderly and expected transition—unlike recent removals of the PLA Defense Minister and the former Commander of China’s Strategic Rocket Forces.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-notes/1000/thumbnail.jp

CMSI Note #2: Admiral Dong Jun Engages Friends and Foes: China’s First Naval Defense Minister Brings Joint Operational Experience

On 29 December 2023, Admiral Dong Jun (董军) was appointed China’s 14th Minister of National Defense (国防部部长) at the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress. He replaced the previously deposed Army General Li Shangfu, ending a four-month leadership gap. Admiral Dong is the first PLA Navy (PLAN) officer to head China’s Ministry of National Defense (MND). Previously the 9th People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Commander, he was likewise exceptional in achieving this position from a background in theater joint operations.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-notes/1001/thumbnail.jp

CMSI Note #11: Admiral Miao Hua\u27s Fall: Further Navy Fallout?

Pending investigation, Xi Jinping’s protégé Admiral Miao Hua (苗华) has been suspended from his duties as a member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and Director of the CMC Political Work Department. This decision was made by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Central Committee, Defense Spokesperson Senior Colonel Wu Qian announced at the scheduled monthly People’s Liberation Army (PLA) press briefing on 28 November 2024, because Miao is “suspected of serious violation of discipline.”2 By the time such CCP investigations become public, conviction is a foregone conclusion. Miao’s fall thus raises three principal questions: Why is he being removed, will his cronies suffer similarly, and what does it mean for China’s navy and military?https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-notes/1010/thumbnail.jp

China Maritime Report No. 44: Dirty But Preparing to Fight: VADM Li Pengcheng\u27s Downfall Amid Increasing PLAN Readiness

Main Findings Although corruption runs deep in the PLA Navy (PLAN) and across China’s armed forces, disciplinary-related removals appear not to have a major impact on naval capabilities or operations. The fight against corruption within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has General Secretary Xi Jinping’s attention and appears to be picking up steam for 2025. The Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) issued a report on 25 December 2024 identifying Vice Admiral Li Pengcheng (李鹏程) as one of eight NPC deputies removed for “serious violations of discipline and the law.” Li was an officer on the fast track and identified early in his career by PLA press as one to watch. He had the unprecedented distinction of having command of two separate Gulf of Aden anti-piracy escort task force deployments, extensive international maritime experience, and involvement in some of the PLAN’s most significant international navy accomplishments. Li’s career and his operations in the Mediterranean Sea had the personal attention of Central Military Commission (CMC) Chairman Xi. Vice Admiral Li Pengcheng replaced Vice Admiral Ju Xinchun (鞠新春) as the Commander of the Southern Theater Command (STC) Navy roughly a year ago. Admiral Ju suffered Admiral Li’s same fate. Comparing and contrasting two consecutive PLAN STC commanders serving in the same capacity, sacked one year apart, provides a revealing dataset to analyze the impact of sacking the commander, and of corruption more broadly, on PLAN operational capabilities and how they affect the force. The PLAN may be playing high-stakes musical chairs with its leadership, but it has a deep enough talent pool to do so without prohibitive problems. When one leader is purged, another is on deck. Politicized corruption investigations and their imposition of costs are fundamentally a speedbump rather than a showstopper. Regardless of corruption’s pervasive persistence, PLAN operational capabilities continue to improve, and cutting-edge, lethal weapons systems regularly enter service. Corruption may contribute to inefficiencies, but it does not curtail PLAN advances. Related removals are neither an indicator of prohibitive incompetence nor a self-defeating constraint on operational capabilities.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritime-reports/1044/thumbnail.jp

CMSI Note 15: PLAN Chief of Staff VADM Li Hanjun: Fast-Rising Star of Training and Education Extinguished

Key Findings: VADM Li Hanjun was a fast-rising star, terminated before he could make his full contribution and career achievements: • VADM Li’s senior roles, including at the Dalian Naval Academy and as Commandant of the Naval Command College, suggest he was well known and respected across the fleet. • Li has influenced a generation of current PLAN operational leaders. His relentless advocacy of high-intensity training in both service-specific and joint roles suggest he had outsized influence in shaping the trajectory of current PLAN training. • The reasons for Vice Admiral Li’s removal remain opaque, but likely related to the downfall of Admiral Miao Hua, who would have been involved in Li’s selection and promotions through the flag ranks. • VADM Li Hanjun’s defenestration comes just months after another leader with tremendous operational experience—VADM Li Pengcheng—was similarly removed as Deputy Commander of the Southern Theater Command, but their respective purges do not appear to have slowed the pace and scope of PLAN training around Taiwan, in the South China Sea, or in the Western Pacific. • The removal of VADM Li Hanjun would suggest that Xi believes he can burn through a tremendous amount of talent to make the PLA into the force he envisions. If Xi continues to feel he can afford this price, then we must seriously consider the possibility that a degree of military leadership churn is “priced in” to his approach to building the world class forces he seeks.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-notes/1014/thumbnail.jp

An Analysis of Private School Closings

We add to the small literature on private school supply by exploring exits of K-12 private schools. We find that the closure of private schools is not an infrequent event, and use national survey data from the National Center for Education Statistics to study closures of private schools. We assume that the probability of an exit is a function of excess supply of private schools over the demand, as well as the school's characteristics such as age, size, and religious affiliation. Our empirical results generally support the implications of the model. Working Paper 07-0

The On-Orbit Performance of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer

We report the first year on-orbit performance results for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA Small Explorer that is performing a survey of the sky in two ultraviolet bands. The instrument comprises a 50 cm diameter modified Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a 1.25 degree field of view, selectable imaging and objective grism spectroscopic modes, and an innovative optical system with a thin-film multilayer dichroic beam splitter that enables simultaneous imaging by a pair of photon counting, microchannel plate, delay line readout detectors. Initial measurements demonstrate that GALEX is performing well, meeting its requirements for resolution, efficiency, astrometry, bandpass definition and survey sensitivity.Comment: This paper will be published as part of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Astrophysical Journal Letters Special Issu

A High Temperature Calcium Vapor Cell for Spectroscopy on the 4s^2 1S0 to 4s4p 3P1 Intercombination Line

We have demonstrated a high temperature vapor cell for absorption spectroscopy on the Ca intercombination line. The cell uses a dual chamber design to achieve the high temperatures necessary for an optically dense vapor while avoiding the necessity of high temperature vacuum valves and glass-to-metal seals. We have observed over 50 percent absorption in a single pass through the cell. Although pressure broadening in the cell prevented us from performing saturated-absorption spectroscopy, the broadening resulted in higher signal-to-noise ratios by allowing us to probe the atoms with intensities much greater than the 0.2 uW/cm^2 saturation intensity of the unbroadened transition.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Rev. Sci. Instru