Latest China Brief Articles

Beijing’s Bailout of Joint-Stock and State-Owned Banks

In the spring and summer of 2005, the Chinese government successively announced that Central Huijin Company (China State Administration of Foreign Exchange Investments) will recapitalize Galaxy Securities (Yinhe Zhengquan), Southern Securities (Nanfang Zhengquan), Huaxia Securities, Shenyin Wanguo Securities, and Guotai Jun’an Securities. [1] Besides brokerages,... MORE

Hu Jintao’s Driving Influence on Chinese Military Modernization

The People’s Liberation Army is on course to become a much more potent and aggressive force, enabling Beijing to better achieve the ambitious diplomatic and security goals set forth by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Fourth-Generation leadership. And while the Pentagon’s just-published annual assessment of... MORE

A Strategic Crossroads for Chinese Military Power

The 2005 Department of Defense Annual Report to Congress on “The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China” is to be commended for providing context, up-to-date information, and some new details about the complex subject of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) modernization program. [1]... MORE

The Limits of Chinese Economic Reform

The conventional view on China is that the PRC has entered the realm of global politics and is currently vying with the United States for superpower status. China has enjoyed dramatic economic growth in recent decades, ever since Deng Xiaoping initiated his reform program more... MORE

The Unocal Bid: China’s Treasure Hunt of the Century

The operation is code-named “Treasure Hunting Ship;” the target is a major piece of U.S. energy real estate. The $18.5 billion cash offer is the largest corporate expansion ever in Chinese history. The strategy is to play the free market game with a lobbying effort... MORE

Sino-Singaporean Relations Back on Track

Sino-Singaporean relations have entered a more complex and complicated phase of development, thanks to a new strategic dimension that has arisen in the Asia-Pacific. After the tumultuous feud of August 2004 and the common will of both sides to make up, relations appeared to have... MORE

The Dragon Breathes Fire: Chinese Power Projection

Despite the sheer size of China’s military forces, the country’s power projection capability is currently quite small for operations outside its land borders. It is quite capable of launching land based attacks on its periphery, but its naval and sea assets, despite their size, do... MORE

INTERPRETING CHINA’S GRAND STRATEGY

Deng Xiaoping encapsulated China’s new international strategy in the early 1980s with the slogan “peace and development.” This phrase embodied a decisive break with Mao Zedong’s “international line” of “war and revolution,” and shifted Chinese efforts towards developing a peaceful, stable international environment. While Mao... MORE