This week’s meeting of President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping near San Francisco is a good reminder that there are a wide variety of freely available U.S. Government information resources on the multifaceted and complicated relationship between these two countries.  One of these resources is the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/.  Located at Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, AL was chartered by the U.S. Air Force on June 15, 2021 https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/CASI/documents/1%20CASI%20Charter%20%2020210615.pdf?ver=BY8q0rwNyQS-DtGHvaoZXg%3d%3d

This section from CASI’s website describes its activities:

CASI performs the following tasks, in priority order.

First, CASI will conduct primary source research and translation on all topics germane to Chinese aerospace, to include air, space, cyber, and missile related fields and civilian-sector work. This research will directly inform a variety of long and short form reports and briefings for a broader audience.

Second, CASI directly enables the warfighter by expanding their understanding of Chinese aerospace and strategic thinking. This will include such actions as working with Red Cells for wargaming or providing background information for large force exercise design.

Third, CASI works to educate the force about Chinese aerospace, to include lectures and direct instruction at multiple levels of Professional Military Education.

Fourth, CASI engages the community of interest outside of the DAF, to include joint and allied partners, think and academic constituents, and other government organizations, as well as the PLA and PRC as applicable.

CASI supports the U.S. Defense Department and the China research community writ-large by providing high quality, unclassified research on Chinese aerospace developments in the context of U.S. strategic imperatives in the Asia-Pacific region. Primarily focused on China’s Military Air, Space, and Missile Forces, CASI capitalizes on publicly available native language resources to gain insights as to how the Chinese speak to and among one another on these topics.

CASI aims to fill a niche in the China research community by providing high quality, unclassified research on Chinese aerospace developments in the context of U.S. strategic imperatives in the Asia-Pacific region.

It’s website has a news section featuring articles written by CASI personnel including: “Survey of PRC Drone Swarm Inventions” https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/Articles/Article-Display/Article/3543399/survey-of-prc-drone-swarm-inventions/, toolkit presentations including PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Air Force https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/CASI/documents/Toolkit%20presentations/1%20CASI%20Commanders%20Toolkit-%20PLAAF.pdf, CASI research area summaries for areas such as space https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/Space/, multiple publications including An Exploratory Analysis of the Chinese Hypersonic Research Landscape https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/Display/Article/3235816/an-exploratory-analysis-of-the-chinese-hypersonics-research-landscape/ , videos such as Competition China:  PLA Navy https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/Display/Article/2975039/competition-with-china-pla-navy/  In Their Own Words translations of Chinese government documents such as ITOW: Basic Issues of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/Display/Article/3568996/itow-basic-issues-of-xi-jinping-thought-on-socialism-with-chinese-characteristi/ and In Their Own Words: 2020 Science of Military Strategy https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/Display/Article/2913216/in-their-own-words-2020-science-of-military-strategy/ and relevant external resources from Chinese and non-Chinese sources.  Many CASI resources have been cataloged in CGP under the SuDoc stems D 301.26/6 and D 301.143.  Print copies of CASI publications may be requested at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXA9O342_s7164wbDO37k6hO7ppz5iAjhmC0mtyrZsRJ-RRA/viewform

Bert Chapman
Purdue University Libraries & School of Information Studies