For the Soviet Union, the discussion returns to keeping naval fighting around the Greenland-Iceland-UK and Faroes gaps rather than near protected submarine areas. China faces a different geography: a long coast, contested maritime claims, and island chains containing many other states. The discussion names the South China Sea, East China Sea, and Taiwan as places where geography, sovereignty claims, and access overlap. Disputes over exclusive economic zones and access to maritime resources add a political dimension to the military problem. The analogy is therefore useful but incomplete, because China's operational environment is not simply a Pacific version of the Soviet bastion system.
Chapter · 49:17-53:19
From Soviet bastions to China's island-chain problem
Soviet efforts to shield northern SSBN waters provide a useful comparison with China's attempt to operate across contested island chains and adjacent seas.