On August 1, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) celebrated Army Day, the anniversary of its founding during the Nanchang Uprising in 1927. Commentaries in official media often use the holiday to propagate important military policy themes. While last year’s editorials focused on establishing the... MORE

Celebrating reform-era leader Deng Xiaoping’s 110th birthday two days early on August 20, China’s leaders sought to harness his legacy for today’s politics by claiming him as a socialist and a uniquely Chinese thinker. While Deng is best remembered for implementing market reforms and opening... MORE

While the downfall of “big tiger” Zhou Yongkang has proven the extent of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s power, it is not clear whether his anti-corruption crusade will continue—or, more importantly, whether Xi will push forward real political reforms that could permanently reduce rent-seeking, abuse of... MORE

President Xi Jinping of China proposed a new Asian security concept on May 21, 2014 at the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). He called on Asian countries to pursue “common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security” based on... MORE

A series of seemingly unprovoked actions in the South and East China Sea has been described as an abandonment of the “second charm offensive” launched last year by Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, China has continued to pursue economic and diplomatic cooperation with its Southeast... MORE

From early 2013 through the present, high level Chinese officials have consistently used the phrase “under the new situation” (zai xin xingshi xia) when discussing strategic concerns such as military reform, readiness and foreign affairs. The phrase refers to a critical reassessment of the international... MORE

In the past month or so, Chinese official media have published scores of articles containing President Xi Jinping’s homilies on the art of leadership (lingxiuxue) and in particular, his views of the personal qualities needed to govern 1.3 billion people. These reports are based not... MORE

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