The 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) stamped in the new leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Membership of the state organ’s CMC and the 17th CMC of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are identical, in that... MORE

Liu Guchang, the Chinese ambassador to Russia, announced that the demarcation of borders for the Heixiazi Island (Bol’shoi Ussuriiskiy Island) is complete and the island will be officially returned to the People's Republic of China's (PRC) jurisdiction by the end of 2008 (China Times, March... MORE

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