The eastward expansion of membership and enlargement of missions undertaken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over the past decade push a lot of sensitive buttons in China’s national security policy. These sensitivities include long-standing opposition to the enlargement of military blocs and strengthening... MORE

In recent years, party officials in the People's Republic of China (PRC) have been uncharacteristically bold in speaking about freedom (ziyou) and democracy (minzhu), both long-standing taboos in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) private and public lexicon. Analysts who monitor developments in China attribute this... MORE

Over the past decade, western militaries and governments have struggled with growing pressures to engage in and balance their responsibilities in “nation-building,” “peacekeeping operations” and other various non-combat tasks. At the same time, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been taking on an increasing... MORE

From February 18 to 19, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Indonesia as part of an 8-day voyage through Asia. Prior to her trip, Clinton stated that Washington was committed to a stronger relationship with Indonesia, a country she described as “one of... MORE

Chief of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Wang Jiarui visited Pyongyang on January 21-23, the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday, to mark the beginning of the "Year of China-DPRK Friendship" (Xinhua News Agency, January 23; Korean Central News... MORE

Beijing has unleashed an unprecedented diplomatic blitz while the new Obama administration battles doubts about its stimulus packages to salvage the struggling American economy. For the first time, both Chinese State President Hu Jintao and Vice-President Xi Jinping were on trips abroad earlier this month—the... MORE

The ruling party in Taiwan, the Kuomintang (KMT), is engulfed in another intelligence-related gaffe. A string of domino-like events that began with a report in the United Daily News, one of Taiwan's major newspapers with close ties to the ruling party, which reported that a... MORE

Beijing published the 2008 edition of "China’s National Defense" (hereafter White Paper) on the cusp of U.S. President Barack Obama's historic inauguration on January 20th. The past three editions (2002, 2004, and 2006) of the White Paper were all published in the final month of... MORE

Oil and other commodity prices have been declining as major economies of the world go into a recession, but the Chinese are now more convinced than ever that their country had very little to do with the sharp climb and subsequent nose dive of oil... MORE

The economic slowdown in China started in the second half of 2007: well before the effects of the subprime crisis in the United States began to be felt internationally. The initial downturn was orchestrated by the Chinese government, which aimed at cooling an overheating economy... MORE