Once again Tokyo and Beijing played with fire over the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islets in the East China Sea, operating under the assumption that the consequent outbursts of nationalism can be contained indefinitely and will not degenerate to the extent that they would threaten... MORE

Vice President Xi Jinping’s “reappearance” last Saturday after an absence of two weeks signaled that preparations for the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress, which is slated for the second half of October, were on track. Beijing is even awash with speculation that the high-profile... MORE

Social management issues and reform have been linked clearly to fulfilling the vision of improving people’s livelihood and Hu Jintao’s “harmonious society.” With the future of social management and political reform ostensible on the agenda for the 18th Party Congress, Chinese research departments seem to... MORE

When Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Cai Yingting spoke with the Chinese media during his visit to Washington in August, he emphasized the importance of building “a new type of military-to-military relationship with the United States” (China Daily,... MORE

At time when leaders in China and Japan were expecting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the two states with a series of celebrations across both countries, instead leaders in both states are working to contain the latest nationalist flare-ups... MORE

The late patriarch Deng Xiaoping said famously about U.S.-China relations: “There are limits as to how good—or how bad—Sino-U.S. ties can become.” Can the same be said for China and Japan? While relations between the two most powerful Asian countries have apparently been heading toward... MORE

China seems to call out for dramatization. In part this may be the result of its tumultuous history from the First Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion through to the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. In part it is a... MORE

ANGOLA Operation Shows China Testing Overseas Security Role On August 25, officials from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) escorted 37 suspects back to China for violent crimes—including human trafficking, kidnapping, robbery and blackmail—against Chinese émigrés in Angola. The MPS made the arrests in... MORE

Following months of confused signals regarding the relationship between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), it now looks like their ties has weathered the recent DPRK leadership transition and could even strengthen in coming months. Jang Song-thaek, director of... MORE

At a forum held in Taipei on August 5th commemorating the 60th anniversary of the peace treaty signed between the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) and Japan following the second Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou announced his administration’s East China Sea Peace Initiative (donghai... MORE