China’s dependence on other nations’ coal exports is growing. In 2009, China imported 126 million tons (Mt) of coal and became a net coal importer. In 2011, China sourced 182 Mt of coal from overseas suppliers, and overtook Japan as the world’s top coal importer.... MORE

On March 6, China and India operationalized a coordination agreement to avert conflict along their contested border. The Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs, as the agreement is officially termed, was first broached by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a visit... MORE

BEIJING DENIES RUSSIAN RUMORS OF SU-35 FIGHTER PURCHASE Last week, Russian media reported Moscow was close to finalizing a $4 billion deal for 48 Su-35s with Beijing. The reported sticking point was that the Russian side wanted greater assurances that Chinese engineers would not reverse... MORE

China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is still searching for the best way to recruit, educate and train its male aviation cadets (feixing xueyuan). After graduation, they serve as aviators (feixing renyuan), which includes fighter, attack, helicopter, bomber and transport pilots (feixingyuan), as well... MORE

Just over a year ago, the Chinese government took the unprecedented step of launching a trial property tax in response to rising real estate prices. Since the mid-2000s in China, real estate prices have been going through the roof. In 2010, home prices in Shanghai... MORE

The mid-November 2011 surprise four-day visit to Mongolia of the 14th Dalai Lama reignited simmering Chinese worries about how the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader is using and is being used by its northern neighbor and important mineral trade partner. From China’s perspective, the Dalai Lama’s... MORE

After apparently engineering the contretemps that have hit Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, President Hu Jintao is putting additional pressure on other members of the Gang of Princelings—the political faction composed of senior cadres’ offspring. The political fortunes of Bo, the high-profile son of Chinese... MORE

Chinese political culture contains a lot of dangerous ideas for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This may go a long ways toward explaining Beijing’s fickle relationship with Confucius as a symbol of Chinese culture and, now, with the trappings of Maoism. While criticism of Chongqing’s... MORE

Following the brutal murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in October 2011, China prevailed upon Thailand, Burma and Laos to improve transboundary law enforcement cooperation by participating in coordinated riverine patrols launched in December. While China’s participation in coordinated patrols in Southeast... MORE

This year marks the tenth anniversary of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (zhongguo dianzi keji jituan gongsi)—known better by its acronym CETC—one of China’s ten official defense industry conglomerate-bureaucracies [1]. CETC’s operations are central to China’s push toward dual-use electronics and civil-military integration for information... MORE