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Latest China Brief Articles
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China’s Silk Road Strategy: A Foothold in the Suez, But Looking To Israel
China plans to develop a Silk Road economic belt that spans the Eurasian continent and a maritime Silk Road that links the Pacific with the Indian Ocean. We can see on a map that the two Silk Roads will cross in the Middle East region,... MORE
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Xi’s Op-Ed Diplomacy: Selling the “China Dream” Abroad
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s six-day trip to South Asia during September 14–19, on state visits to the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India, redoubled China’s efforts to increase its presence in the Indian Ocean while also trying to improve its relations with neighboring India. Xi signed... MORE
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The Rise of the Military-Space Faction
Much has been written about the growing influence of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) generals on China’s foreign policy. Little has been said about military entrepreneurs and other non-combatant PLA personnel moving into China’s domestic governance. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, an unprecedented number of senior... MORE
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Xi and Putin in Ulaanbaatar: Mongolia’s Balancing Act
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Mongolia on August 21–22 signaled closer trilateral economic cooperation between China, Russia and Mongolia on their shared vision of a new Silk Road economic corridor. However, this positive forward momentum must be placed in the context of what... MORE
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Community Corrections and Stability Maintenance
During the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress last November, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced the abolition of Re-education Through Labor (RTL), or laojiao, the largest formal institution of administrative detention, which enabled Chinese police to incarcerate an individual for up to four... MORE
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Chinese Designs on the Arctic? Chill Out
It is not fashionable, these days, to downplay China’s interest in the Arctic. Recent news that Beijing plans to publish a guidebook on Arctic shipping, that China will receive preferential treatment along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), or that Chinese investors plan to finance Russian... MORE
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Anti-Privilege Campaign Hits the Chinese Middle Class
On September 4, China’s State Council announced a series of ambitious and wide-reaching reforms of the Chinese college admissions system, designed to increase fairness and reduce pressure on China’s high school students. China’s infamous college admissions test, the gaokao, will be restructured, replacing a single... MORE
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Challenging Uyghur Muslim Identity: More Enforcement, Worse Results
Following deadly attacks in Beijing, Kunming and Urumqi over the last year, the Xinjiang government has intensified its efforts to regulate Uyghur religious activities. The provincial government has once again reinforced its ban on Ramadan fasting for Uyghur civil servants and students in 2014, as... MORE
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Undocumented Uyghur Migrants Find New Route to Southeast Asia
Since 2013, increasing numbers of Uyghurs from Xinjiang Province have attempted to migrate illegally through China’s South Asian neighbors—Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia—to Thailand and then Malaysia, often with the hope of flying to Turkey. This trend marks a change from the 1990s and mid-2000s,... MORE
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Power to the Provinces: The Devolution of China’s Maritime Rights Protection
In March 2013, China passed legislation integrating four of its five maritime law enforcement (MLE) agencies into the newly-created China Coast Guard, under the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) (see also China Brief, March 28, 2013). [1] This decision, long called for by people both in... MORE