Latest China Brief Articles

TWO CHEERS FOR THE CFR’S PLA REPORT

By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. A long awaited report assessing the real extent, plus the potential for danger to the United States from China's ongoing military modernization has been released by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). While this report makes useful contributions... MORE

SARS: SPREADING UNREST

By Harvey Stockwin The spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome--the SARS virus--throughout China is a phenomenon that had previously been denied by authorities and had gone unreported. But the penetration of the disease is now being admitted publicly, and efforts to combat it have begun.... MORE

CRISES CHISEL AT THE PLA’S CREDIBILITY

By Willy Lam The standing of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)--and its commander-in-chief, Jiang Zemin--has taken a drubbing in the wake of China's raging pneumonia epidemic and a recent submarine accident off the Bohai Sea. Apart from the leaders of Guangdong Province, where Severe Acute... MORE

TAIWAN’S ECONOMIC HARA-KIRI

By Li Thian-hok Taiwan once enjoyed a growing and prosperous economy. Taiwan's GDP was US$314 billion in 2000, which ranked nineteenth globally. Per capita GDP was US$14,180 that year, and the economy's annual growth rate was 5.9 percent. Taiwan's trade volume was US$288 billion, making... MORE

CHINA AND THE SHIFTING BALANCE OF ECONOMIC POWER

by William R. Hawkins In March of 1917 the British Empire captured Baghdad from the Ottoman Empire. That military campaign was part of the larger conflict of World War I, from which Great Britain emerged victorious. Indeed, London has not lost a major war in... MORE

SARS: GROWING IMPACT ON CHINA’S LEADERSHIP

By Willy Lam In addition to shaving perhaps 0.5 percent from China's GDP growth this year, the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) will have a lasting socio-political impact on the country. The authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been shaken to... MORE

CHINA’S NEWS MEDIA LOOK AT THE WAR IN IRAQ

The answer from expert Pan Zhenqiang was hardly what a viewer would normally expect, given the usual ideological tilt of CCTV, the state operated China Central Television. Speculating on the death of Saddam Hussein as U.S. forces entered Baghdad in April, CCTV anchor Li Maoqi... MORE

SARS: CHINA COMPOUNDS CRISIS FOR TAIWAN

Beijing insists that Taiwan can participate in the global struggle to contain Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) only as a part of the People's Republic of China. There is nothing surprising about this denial of recognition to Taiwan as an individual entity. Beijing has always... MORE

SARS CRISIS: NEW DISEASE, NEW LEADERS, SAME OLD REGIME

An epidemic, spread by official deception and indifference, is afflicting the Chinese people. What does this disease mean for the People's Republic of China?Severe acute respiratory syndrome, "SARS" for short, is, according to the World Health Organization, "the first severe new disease of the 21st... MORE