Prior to 2000, the Chinese media made practically no mention of the concept of "nanotechnology" (nami jishu) or its potential for revolutionizing China's high tech industry. Today, however, dozens of major Chinese research centers and hundreds of enterprises engage in the production of nanotechnologies, which... MORE

Once again, Beijing is walking a fine line between fire and ice – between over-heating and over-cooling its economy. This balancing act deeply worries U.S. financial sectors as well as other Asian entities (such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan), whose economic performance is... MORE

If China had sufficient economic and military prowess, there seems little doubt the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership would "go teach the U.S. a lesson" for the wrongs it had allegedly inflicted upon on the country. Previous CCP administrations had used similar clauses of indignation... MORE

Increasingly, China is being perceived as the locomotive of Asia's economic growth and development, as its imports and trade deficits (with most Asian countries) are helping to fuel the economic recovery and growth of its smaller neighbors. Even Japan has acknowledged that its economic recovery... MORE

Hong Kong voters will go to the polls on September 12 to elect the third Legislative Council (LegCo) since 1997, when British rule ended. The voter turnout rate for the first post-handover election in May 1998 was a historic high at 53%. In that election,... MORE

Beijing has acted quickly to dash the hopes that the half-a-million-people rally in Hong Kong last week will change the leadership's hard-line stance toward universal-suffrage elections in the special administrative region (SAR). While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has continued with its public-relations, united-front offensive... MORE

Diplomatic relations between mainland China and the Vatican broke off in the early 1950s when the Papal representative, who had supported the KMT during the civil war, was expelled for urging Chinese Catholics to oppose the PRC's involvement in the Korean War. Fifty years later,... MORE

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Chaosin made his first official visit to Kazakhstan in April 2003. The success of his meetings with Kazakh officials prompted Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev to emphatically state that his views were identical to those of his Chinese counterpart and that... MORE

By Andrew Thompson and Zhu Feng The on-going transfer of power in Beijing is contributing to the "politicization" (zhengzhihua) of China's foreign policy, causing commentators and policymakers in Beijing to emphasize a hard-line ideology on Taiwan. Beijing's current, ideologically-charged atmosphere has had an impact on... MORE

In April, the European Union (EU) dodged a bullet by refusing to take up the issue of overturning its 15-year-old ban on selling arms to China. Supporters of lifting the embargo, led by France and Germany, are unlikely to abandon their quest, however, and the... MORE