CASI Quarterly update
#4 for 2025
Friends of CASI,
As we close out 2025, we are happy to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy New Year, and general Season’s Greetings. As with many of us, the shutdown took a little wind out of our sails, thankfully we had several things already queued up and ready to go, so we were able to provide some reading for those taking a break. And as we pause and wrap up, we just wanted to share a quick look back at the quarter and the year. In just this last year, we had nearly 80,000 people visit our website, and they downloaded more than 50,000 copies of our articles and reports, that is in addition to the more than 1,200 hard copies we sent out, the 1,000+ we handed out at AFA, not to mention the ever popular CASI PLA-ying cards (which topped 10,000 distributed). Those numbers were a surprise to me. From time to time, we run into people and meetings where they mention the work CASI is doing, but to see it in numbers over the course of just one year, really makes me proud of the whole team. So, a big thank you to our supporters and advocates, you can look forward to more of the same in the coming year.
Personnel: We had a quiet quarter, no gains but no losses, in personnel. Hopefully the new year brings an opportunity to fill a couple of the open positions we have.
CASI’s Fundamentals of the PLA Course:
We continue to have great interest in, and turn out for, our three-day PLA Fundamentals Course. The Government shutdown unfortunately forced the cancellation of the three courses we had planned during the quarter. We are currently working to reschedule those courses as soon as possible–thanks for your understanding as we do so.
The next NDU in-house PLA Fundamentals course will be 3-5 February. If you are interested in attending, please sign up at: https://tinyurl.com/CASI-PLA-Fundamentals
If you are interested in hosting a Mobile Education Team (MET) version of the PLA Fundamentals course, let us know and we will do our best to find open space on the calendar to support your organization. Please be aware that due to high demand, we are currently booked out through mid-2026 dates for our next availability. The PLA Fundamentals course is free to attend and is open to all DoD and U.S. government employees, Allies, as well as civilian contractors working for the DoD. There is no security clearance requirement.
China Centers- And check out what great work the other China Centers are doing:
China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI)
China Landpower Studies Center (CLSC)
Recent Publications
We started a new series, Thoughts from the Chairman. The “Thoughts from the Chairman” (TFTC) series is intended to be thought provoking and encourage discussions. In some cases, the “Thoughts” will be complete works of fiction, though based on years of studying and thinking about issues facing the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Liberation Army, the People’s Republic of China, the leaders, and the people of China. This series is not intended to be proscriptive or predictive, and is certainly not intended to endorse or support the ‘thoughts’ expressed within, but rather to give the reader some insights into how Chinese leaders might think about issues facing them. Call it informed speculation.
- Aerial Refueling Added to Flight Academies’ Transition Training Curriculum
- Intermediate Flight Training Shifting to Aviation University
- TFTC: Borscht vs Jiaozi
- Remote Basing: People’s Liberation Army Logistics on the Tibetan Plateau
- China's Defense S&T Key Lab System - 2025 Update
- TFTC: Friendlies before the World Cup
- The Evolution of China’s Nuclear Forces
- China’s Commercial SSA Company and “TLE Localization”
CASI’s “In Their Own Words” – Translations of PRC materials
- ITOW: Lectures from Course Book on the Taiwan Strait's Military Geography
CASI is pleased to offer hard copies of CASI full reports for free. Please see our website at: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/CASI-Publications/
for the full list and for the order form. Please note- most of the articles and short reports are available in PDF only.
CASI, like many others, had a whole series of events cancelled or postponed due to the government shutdown, which amounted to half of this quarter.
Support to the Warfighter
- Featured speaker at the inaugural China Conversation event
- Presented a series of briefs to the 526IS
- Supported 800 REDHORSE
- Lectured at ISR300 course
- Participated in interagency OSINT workshop
- Featured speaker at RAF Executive Warrant Officer Course
- Guest speaker at DISA Pacific
- Guest speaker for 68 RQS
- Guest speaker for the 187th Fighter Wing, Alabama Air National Guard
- Guest speaker for 400+ Airmen, Guardians, and Sailors stationed at Misawa AB, Japan
- Guest speaker for 35th Fighter Wing senior leadership team
- Provided research for AFD35
Education
- We had to cancel the three PLA Fundamentals courses scheduled for October and November
- Lectured at AFROTC Det 010
- Lectured at two iterations of Squadron Officer School
- Lectured at Chief Leadership Academy
- Lectured twice at AFROTC Det 005
- Guest speaker twice for NCO Foundations Course 500
- Guest speaker at Sheppard NCOA
- Lectured at AFROTC Det 810
- Lectured at First Sergeant Academy
- Guest speaker for Blue Horizon Fellows
- Guest speaker at Eglin Strategic Leadership Course
- Lectured at Defense Financial Management Course
- Guest speaker at Vandenberg Crucible Seminar
- Lectured at Senior NCO Academy
- Guest speaker for 23 FTS
- Lectured at Contingency Wartime Planning Course
- Guest speaker at the USAF China FAO professional development session
- Guest speaker at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS)
- Guest speaker for the Senior Joint Information Operations Applications Course (SJIOAC)
- Guest speaker at Air Component Senior Leadership Course (ACSLC)
Engagement and Outreach
In addition to providing support to the Department of the Air Force staff, CASI has had another busy quarter supporting the USAF and the DoD, as well as our allies, partners, and friends. CASI:
- Interviewed by Washington Post
- Participated in roundtable with Rear Admiral Tim Woods
- Guest on the Air Power Podcast
- Selected to be part of the Editorial Board of Cyber Defense Review
- Joined USG Cyber and Indo-Pacific Working Groups
- Lectured at Foreign Service Institute in the European Department
- Met with Open AI to discuss potential applications for the USAF
- Met with American Mandarin Society Fellows
Keep in contact with us:
CASI website www.airuniversity.af.mil/CASI/
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/CASI_Research
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/CASI.Research.Org
Link with us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/china-aerospace-studies-institute
As always, please feel free to send this update, or our website/ contact information, to anyone you feel might be interested in CASI or our research. Let us know if you have any thoughts, requests for support, or ideas for future papers and projects.