Latest China Brief Articles
Beijing’s Perspectives on the Russo-Georgian Conflict: Dilemma and Choices
Beijing’s reaction to the Russo-Georgian fiasco has remained muted since Russian tanks rumbled into Georgia on August 8, leading to the most serious standoff between the West and Russia in the post-Cold War era. In his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on August 27... MORE
Chinese Soldiers and Arms Exports Embroiled in Zimbabwe’s Electoral Impasse
Chinese soldiers were spotted patrolling the streets of Mutare, Zimbabwe. The total number of PLA soldiers in Mutare is unconfirmed, but eyewitness accounts place 10 Chinese soldiers in full military regalia equipped with pistols with 70 Zimbabwean soldiers checking into a hotel (Zimbabwejournalists.com, April 15).... MORE
Energy Security the Centerpiece of China’s Foreign Policy
The 2008 People's Republic of China (PRC) White Paper on Diplomacy placed energy security as a major centerpiece of the country's foreign policy. The White Paper represents "China's foreign policy and China's view on the international situation and introducing the status of China's foreign relations... MORE
Taiwan’s Parliament to Oversee Cross-Strait Negotiations
The speaker of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan (parliament), Wang Jin-pyng, arrived in Washington, D.C. on July 24 for a week-long visit, marking the highest level visit by a ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party member to the United States since the transfer of power to the new administration... MORE
What is a “Normal” Japan? Implications for Sino-Japanese Relations
Since the early 1990s, a number of Japanese policymakers and opinion leaders have called for the “normalization” of their country. The notion of a so-called “normal Japan” has been central to the debate over the country’s security policy. The Japanese normalization discourse and its active... MORE
The Role of the Chinese Diaspora in Sino-Indonesian Relations
China’s importance to the burgeoning economies of Southeast Asia has increased remarkably since the mid-1990s [1]. This has been led by dramatic growth in trade already large enough to significantly alter the foreign policy outlooks and priorities of Southeast Asian nations [2]. While Southeast Asia-bound... MORE
Northeast Asian Security: A New Paradigm?
For a decade or more there has been active discussion of a security framework, structure, or mechanism for Northeast Asia. The discussions, which intensified over the last half decade, coincided with the Six-Party Talks concerning North Korea’s nuclear weapon program. Many imagined that the talks,... MORE
CCP Launches Personnel Reform to Stem “Mass Incidents”
While political reform is off the agenda, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken some visible steps toward improving the quality of its cadres in light of the large number of unexpected and near-disastrous “mass incidents” in this critical Olympic year. For example, the low... MORE
Beijing Revives Mao’s “People’s Warfare” to Ensure Trouble Free Olympics
Hardly anybody still believes that the Beijing Olympics will have the same kind of globalizing and liberalizing effect on Chinese politics that the 1988 Seoul Olympics had on the democratic development of South Korea. Yet even fewer expected the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities to... MORE
The Evolution of Espionage: Beijing’s Red Spider Web
The fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War had a profound impact not only on how security and intelligence professionals viewed the world of espionage but also on the motivations of the players and the targets of their espionage activities.... MORE