Latest China Brief Articles

THE PROBLEM WITH WATER, PART II

By Gordon G. Chang President Jiang Zemin has recently urged China's young to "Protect the Mother Rivers." If the truth be told, Jiang's exhortation is a call to resist the nation's environmental policies. The biggest threat to China's waterways is the country's own leaders. Central... MORE

HELICOPTER DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA AND INDIA

AIR SHOW PROVIDES VENUE FOR EXHIBITION Both China and India have long held ambitions to establish local helicopter manufacturing bases for reasons of industrial strategy, national security and international prestige. Rotorcraft development was addressed in September at an Indian defense conference. From November 4 through... MORE

EXPLOITING A FAVORABLE CLIMATE

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam Beijing is exploiting to the utmost Washington's and the UN's recent decisions to classify the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist organization. CCP leadership wants to take advantage of what the official media calls "a favorable global climate against... MORE

TAIWAN’S FECKLESS NATIONAL DEFENSE POSTURE

The U.S. Department of Defense's Annual Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China, released on July 12, pointed out Taiwan's growing vulnerability to China's pre-emptive, multipronged blitzkrieg. In acquiring advanced weapons from Russia and frequent large-scale joint-force military exercises, the People's... MORE

THE HONG KONG-TAIWAN-CHINA TRIANGLE

While recent Pentagon and Congressional reports on Sino-American relations noted the military trends threatening war between China and Taiwan, too little attention is paid to the political underpinnings of China's policies towards Taiwan, which make war in the Taiwan Straits more likely, even inevitable. When... MORE

THE PROBLEM WITH WATER, PART I

"Pigs, chickens, cows--there were corpses everywhere, including people," said Zhao Zhengwu, a soybean grower and resident of Guangming. Guangming, some 40 miles south of Wuhan, was inundated in the great floods of 1998 and has not fully recovered. "We used to be able to grow... MORE

JIANG TURNS BACK THE CLOCK

The damage has already been done. Whether Jiang Zemin will give up all his positions at the 16th Communist Party Congress aside, his efforts at recycling dynastic politics over the past several months have turned the clock back on reform. Many of the questions surrounding... MORE

DEATH SPREADS ACROSS CHINA, PART II

Beijing is fighting AIDS, but it prefers to fight AIDS activists. And shut down clinics to help the Chinese people afflicted by the disease, the worst in human history. This June the United Nations released its landmark report on AIDS in the People's Republic, "China's... MORE

BEIJING’S MISSILE CONTROLS: LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE

By Thomas Woodrow China's announcement in late August of a regime of export controls for missiles, missile-related items and technologies is a victory of sorts for U.S. diplomacy but likely will do little to stem continuing Chinese sales of such technologies. It also does nothing... MORE