Can Hu Jintao recover from the blow that the so-called "Zhao Ziyang fiasco" has dealt to his already shaky reputation? The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s shabby treatment of the recently deceased former party chief has cast doubt not only on Hu's commitment to reform but... MORE

Nothing better demonstrates La Rochefoucauld's maxim that "hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue" than the Joint Declaration on Non-proliferation and Arms Control issued at the China-European Union Summit held in The Hague, Holland, on December 9, 2004. The declaration was filled with... MORE

Call it the Great Leap Leftward. President and Commander-in-Chief Hu Jintao is presiding over a leftward turn in politics that has come as a surprise to Hu admirers who were once impressed with the Fourth-Generation leader's reformist inclinations. In Chinese terminology, "left" has the connotation... MORE

The devastating tsunami that crashed ashore throughout Asia on December 26, 2004 sparked the largest international reconstruction effort in recent history. As governments and NGOs across the globe mobilized to provide aid to affected regions, political rivalries were temporarily put aside in the spirit of... MORE

The regional reverberations from the recent regime shake-up in Burma continue to be felt in Beijing, New Delhi and in most ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) capitals. After barely 15 months in office, Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt was sacked in mid-October 2004. Since... MORE

The recent ASEAN Summit held in Vientiane, Laos could have broken new ground in Asian integration and community-building, as China is slated to play an accelerated role in building this future East Asian Community. Optimism was thus high for East Asia following the conclusion of... MORE

China Brief Readers: In light of Taiwan's recent Legislative Yuan elections, Jamestown is pleased to present this special coverage issue of China Brief to analyze its potential impact on US-China-Taiwan relations. In the interest of maintaining balanced discourse, we have included two articles from the... MORE

The good news about the Taiwan Legislative Yuan elections last month, from the perspective of Beijing, Washington, and at least half of the Taiwan electorate, is that nothing will happen. Chen Shui-bian and his pan-green coalition remained a legislative minority, meaning a radical push ahead... MORE

In a series of fiery speeches during the last two weeks of the campaign, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian turned the December 11th legislative elections into a referendum on "Taiwan subjectivity" (Taiwan zhutixing). This concept is significantly more abstract than "Taiwan independence" and more philosophical than... MORE

Beijing has heaved a sigh of relief at the results of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan (LY) elections. There will be some fine-tuning of the Hu Jintao administration's Taiwan-related policies. For example, more emphasis will be put on "united front tactics" to win over the majority of... MORE