The PLA Watch

The weekly analytical series of the China Desk, published from 2026 under the predecessor masthead China Mil Watch. It is a legacy series in the archival sense — it was published under a name this project no longer uses — not a discontinued one.

These issues are preserved as published

Every issue keeps the issue number, title, dek, byline and date it carried when it was published, and keeps the path it was published at: the full archive. Those issues were published by China Mil Watch, and China Mil Watch's own domain redirects to them rather than dropping them. Nothing here is rewritten to look as though it appeared under Indo-Pacific Record, because it did not.

Editions

13 editions published to date. Every claim in an edition traces to a record in this archive; machine-generated classifications are labeled Model-flagged and are never presented as editorial judgment.

13 editions, newest first. Counts are the edition's own record.
No.	Week ending	Edition	Articles	Model-flagged
13	2026-08-08Significant	The PLA Watch: Scarborough Shoal, Platform Disclosures, and the Limits of Anniversary Week Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Scarborough Shoal, Platform Disclosures, and the Limits of Anniversary Week." The PLA Watch, No. 13, week ending 8 August 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-08-08.html.	134	11
12	2026-08-01Significant	The PLA Watch: Army Day, Scarborough Shoal, and a Week of Deliberate Disclosure Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Army Day, Scarborough Shoal, and a Week of Deliberate Disclosure." The PLA Watch, No. 12, week ending 1 August 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-08-01.html.	154	25
11	2026-07-18Significant	The PLA Watch: Joint Sea-2026, the Y-20B Abroad, and the Week's Quieter Signals Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Joint Sea-2026, the Y-20B Abroad, and the Week's Quieter Signals." The PLA Watch, No. 11, week ending 18 July 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-07-18.html.	34	3
10	2026-07-11Significant	The PLA Watch: Beijing's Public SLBM Test and What It Was Designed to Do Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Beijing's Public SLBM Test and What It Was Designed to Do." The PLA Watch, No. 10, week ending 11 July 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-07-11.html.	39	2
9	2026-07-04Significant	The PLA Watch: Scarborough Shoal, July 1st Loyalty, and What Routine Looks Like Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Scarborough Shoal, July 1st Loyalty, and What Routine Looks Like." The PLA Watch, No. 9, week ending 4 July 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-07-04.html.	40	1
8	2026-06-27Significant	The PLA Watch: Carriers, Drones, and the Rocket Force's Manning Problem Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Carriers, Drones, and the Rocket Force's Manning Problem." The PLA Watch, No. 8, week ending 27 June 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-06-27.html.	41	4
7	2026-06-20Routine	The PLA Watch: The CCG Statement That Stood Apart Routine Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: The CCG Statement That Stood Apart." The PLA Watch, No. 7, week ending 20 June 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-06-20.html.	30	1
6	2026-06-13Routine	The PLA Watch: Combat Realism, Institutional Friction, and One Confirmation Worth Noting Routine Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Combat Realism, Institutional Friction, and One Confirmation Worth Noting." The PLA Watch, No. 6, week ending 13 June 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-06-13.html.	53	1
5	2026-06-06Significant	The PLA Watch: Loitering Munitions, Rocket Force Readiness, and the Coast Guard's Expanding Remit Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Loitering Munitions, Rocket Force Readiness, and the Coast Guard's Expanding Remit." The PLA Watch, No. 5, week ending 6 June 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-06-06.html.	41	4
4	2026-05-30Significant	The PLA Watch: Senior Cadre Oversight, Electronic Warfare, and the Week's Institutional Texture Significant Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Senior Cadre Oversight, Electronic Warfare, and the Week's Institutional Texture." The PLA Watch, No. 4, week ending 30 May 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-05-30.html.	40	2
3	2026-05-23Routine	The PLA Watch: Institutional Friction and the Gap Between Form and Function Routine Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Institutional Friction and the Gap Between Form and Function." The PLA Watch, No. 3, week ending 23 May 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-05-23.html.	49	0
2	2026-05-16	Fujian’s Air Wing Takes Shape as the Rocket Force Trains for Failure Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "Fujian’s Air Wing Takes Shape as the Rocket Force Trains for Failure." The PLA Watch, No. 2, week ending 16 May 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-05-16.html.	85	3
1	2026-05-09Pilot edition	The PLA Watch: Two Defense Ministers, One Verdict Pilot edition Cite this issue Benjamin Yang. "The PLA Watch: Two Defense Ministers, One Verdict." The PLA Watch, No. 1, week ending 9 May 2026. https://indopacificrecord.org/the-pla-watch/posts/2026-05-09.html.	42	1

The edition label is the editor's own classification of the week, not a machine output. The model-flagged column beside it is the pipeline's count, and the two are deliberately kept apart.

Full archive on the live site →

A gap in the series, recorded rather than hidden

There is no edition for the week ending 2026-07-25. An eight-day collection outage left that window with one observed day of seven, and retro-scraping was tested and rejected as unsound. The outage itself is listed on Coverage.