Executive Summary: Economic planning for systemic rivalry: The Fourth Plenum ratified the culmination of a decade-long project to fuse national planning, security strategy, and technological control under Xi Jinping’s direct command. The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) formalizes this system as a doctrine of strategic endurance—a... MORE

Executive Summary: In 2025, Beijing has intensified its approach to Taiwan across legal, military, discourse, and political dimensions. In October, a local public security bureau opened investigation into a sitting Taiwanese lawmaker for the first time, enhancing its legal warfare tactics against the democratic state.... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) closely studies the Russia–Ukraine conflict, viewing Ukraine’s innovative use of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) as a transformative model for future naval warfare and asymmetric operations. Chinese analysts emphasize the cost-effectiveness, mass-producibility, modular flexibility, and stealth of USVs, framing them as... MORE

Executive Summary: Growing investments by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline infrastructure are increasing its geopolitical influence in energy markets. PRC LNG re-exports have increased dramatically from 2022, with re-exports surging nearly 770 percent from 2024. Recent progress... MORE

Executive Summary: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using the 80th anniversary of Taiwan’s retrocession to push a revisionist history, formally designating it as a national holiday, and framing 1945 as the legal return of Taiwan to China to strengthen its sovereignty claims over Taiwan.... MORE

Executive Summary: Military procurement documents show that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is adopting homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) systems like DeepSeek to accelerate its shift toward “intelligentized warfare.” PLA experts describe DeepSeek not as a single product but as an evolving system architecture. They envision... MORE

Executive Summary: Trade between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is now defined by selective weaponization, not interdependence or decoupling. Both sides are learning to use high-value channels of exchange—technology, materials, and capital—as instruments to shape the other’s behavior. Neither seeks... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) influence in Central Asia is growing, and it presents a greater challenge to Russia, the traditional regional hegemon, through multilateral summits such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the China–Central Asia Summit. PRC–Central Asia cooperation is... MORE

Executive Summary: A humanoid robotics ecosystem is developing in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A vertically integrated supply chain is improving global competitiveness and market share in core component technologies. In most segments, Western firms remain dominant. PRC firms note that they are constrained... MORE

Executive Summary: The PLA’s new regulation on political cadres aims to reform a deeply entrenched political work system by emphasizing impartial personnel management and personal discipline. The regulation defines behavioral standards for political cadres across three main categories: core political logic, operational priorities, and personal... MORE