The recent Asian Cup finals in Beijing on August 7 could have constituted a watershed in Sino-Japanese relations and ironically launched a real rapprochement between Beijing and Tokyo. To the horror of the Japanese audience, Chinese fans in the Workers' Stadium in Beijing drowned the... MORE

President and Central Military Commission (CMC) Chairman Hu Jintao has moved swiftly to tighten his grip over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The emphasis that the new commander-in-chief has put on flexing the nation's fast-growing military muscle has fed speculation that he will be taking... MORE

Based on its study of logistics requirements in modern conflicts starting with the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and their own performance in the 1979 "Defensive Counterattack" into Vietnam, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) included logistics reform as a basic component of its comprehensive modernization program... MORE

Investigating the degree of cooperation between the aerospace industries of Russia and China demands painstaking research. Chinese officials do not like to reveal details about their cooperation, while Russian officials will neither admit nor deny such information. In addition, Russian officials occasionally overstate the amount... MORE

Since Wen Jiabao's visit to Washington in December 2003, Beijing has steadily ratcheted up its rhetoric on Taiwan, pressuring Washington and threatening Taiwanese president Chen Shuibian to stop leading Taiwan towards independence from the Mainland. Following President Chen's re-election this spring, Beijing has made increasingly... MORE

The 1.784 million voters that participated in Hong Kong's 2004 Legislative Council Election gave a clear signal that they want democracy sooner rather than later. Whereas until now Hong Kongers have only been able to select the opposition, the recent elections indicated the people's desire... MORE

The Legislative Council (LegCo) polls in Hong Kong demonstrated that Beijing's carrot-and-stick approach has to a considerable extent been successful in countering the challenge of pro-democracy forces in the special administrative region (SAR). It is expected that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership will continue... MORE

Reconsidering the "Hu-Wen" notion China watchers' inclination to posit a new "Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao" model of governance – a concept first put forward during the SARS outbreak in China last year – suggests the country's newly-installed "fourth generation" leadership has broken with its predecessors and... MORE

Recent indications point to a growing Sino-US rivalry in the Asia-Pacific, with China's emergence not only as an Asian power, but a world power. The impressive haul of Olympic golds by China, second only to the U.S., testifies to this Asian giant's rising prowess on... MORE

The soon-to-be-announced appointment of former Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi as Chinese Ambassador to Japan is emblematic of efforts by the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao leadership to improve Sino-Japanese relationship. In the past year, bilateral ties have deteriorated due to a host of issues ranging from “the... MORE