On Tuesday, Chinese official media confirmed the long-anticipated arrest of Zhou Yongkang (Xinhua, July 29). Zhou, a former member of the Politboro Standing Committee and head of China’s state security apparatus, is the first member of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) highest echelon to fall... MORE

Part One of this article covered the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army Second Artillery Force’s (PLASAF) conventional arsenal and the “conventionalization of deterrence”—the creation of doctrines that rely on advanced non-nuclear weapons to deter U.S. and other international intervention in a regional conflict (read... MORE

China announced a renewed push on military reforms in November 2013. A theoretical People’s Liberation Army (PLA) publication titled “Transformation of Generating Mode of Warfighting Capability” (official translation of zhandouli shengcheng moshi zhuanbian) proposes an accelerated and focused methodology for modernization to implement a system... MORE

This year Sino-Mongolian relations have been buffeted by a series of challenging interruptions: the Mongolian government’s standoff with Rio Tinto over expanding underground mining operations at Oyu Tolgoi (OT) which will disrupt development of shipments of copper concentrate supplies to China, another Mongolian postponement in... MORE

On July 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping became the second national leader to meet newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (who has paid a state visit to Bhutan), beating Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in an 80-minute face-to-face meeting at the BRICS Summit in... MORE

On July 10, several Chinese news outlets announced that China had taken an important step towards achieving “self-reliance” (zizhu baozhang) through the “breaking” (dapo) of a foreign monopoly on military-use computer airborne systems (People’s Daily Online, July 10). Many details of the two real-time operating... MORE

Over the past few months, criticism by Indonesian officials of China’s conduct in the South China Sea has fueled speculation about a policy departure in Southeast Asia’s largest state (Jakarta Globe, March 13; PacNet, April 1; Strat.Buzz, April 2). While this does signal rising concern... MORE

Since serious Chinese planning of high-speed rail (HSR) networks began in the 1990s under the guidance of the Ministry of Railways (MoR), rail planners have sought to create independently trademarkable Chinese brands capable of competing in global markets in addition to confronting domestic transport inefficiencies... MORE

The Second Artillery has made significant progress, particularly in modernizing its hardware, but also operations and training. Its main mission remains deterrence, especially toward U.S. intervention in a regional conflict. This deterrence mission increasingly emphasizes conventional capabilities, but nuclear weapons have also been modernized to... MORE

The Xi Jinping administration has chosen June 30, the eve of the Chinese Communist Party’s 93rd birthday, to make two announcements about Beijing’s 18 month-long anti-graft campaign. With these, he has largely eliminated the remaining allies of his rival Zhou Yongkang—and he may be moving... MORE