Taiwan's Ministry of Defense announced on March 11 that China's real defense budget is most likely to be two to three times more than the reported amount from the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (China Times, March 11). Last week... MORE

Economic factors are clearly driving Chinese interest in strengthening their country’s underdeveloped nuclear energy sector. At present, China’s 11 operating nuclear reactors produce less than 2 percent of the country’s electricity, compared with over 25 percent in Japan and approximately 75 percent in France [1].... MORE

Since 1990, China has contributed about 7,500 peacekeepers to United Nations peacekeeping operations (UNPKOs), according to the Peacekeeping Affairs Office of the Ministry of Defense in Beijing (China Daily, July 24, 2007). In early 2008, 1,963 Chinese peacekeepers were serving on UN missions in countries... MORE

Taiwan's voters will be going to the polls on March 22 to cast perhaps one of the nation's most important votes since the nation first directly elected its president in 1996. This coming election will decide whether or not the process of Taiwan’s democratic consolidation... MORE

The People’s Liberation Army's (PLA) focus on creating modular combined arms forces is part of its plan to create a Hardened and Networked Army (HNA) [1]. It is mechanizing the force while introducing information operations doctrine and equipment. The first PLA division developed as part... MORE

There is a clear understanding in Beijing that the best way for China to achieve its ambition in civil aviation—namely to build its own fleet of commercial craft—is to work in partnership with Airbus and Boeing, rather than flying solo or partnering with Russian companies... MORE

While much of the attention on China’s emergence onto the global economic stage as an industrial powerhouse has focused on the accumulation of its massive trade surpluses, most Western observers probing Beijing’s interest in Africa’s rich natural resources have concentrated on the Middle Kingdom’s seemingly... MORE

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was in Australia on February 5 for the inaugural ministerial-level strategic dialogue between China and Australia (Xinhua, February 5). Foreign Minister Yang's visit marked the first high-level visit by a Chinese delegation to Australia following the election of Kevin Rudd's... MORE

The Hong Kong based newspaper Ming Pao learned from sources in Beijing that Xi Jinping—who was only recently elevated by President Hu Jintao to become a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee—may be... MORE

Indian journalists traveling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh noted that the flight was bumpy and the weather freezing when they arrived in Beijing. Yet Singh’s first visit to China turned out to be warm and smooth. While underlying Sino-Indian tensions were far from being laid... MORE