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

On April 17, twenty-two weeks after the first outbreak of a previously unknown type of atypical pneumonia in Guangdong province, the highest political decision making body in China, the nine member Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), finally took a public stand in favor of handling the... MORE

The vast weight of reporting thus far on the origins of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) points to a mutation of the coronavirus, which causes the common cold. This view holds that the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans somewhere in China's... MORE

In addition to hurting Beijing's global image and its foreign-exchange earnings, China's raging pneumonia epidemic could also deal a big blow to the administration of Hu Jintao, and particularly to the credibility of the new president's reform efforts. On the surface, the 60-year-old Fourth Generation... MORE

Chinese strategic and military experts are scrutinizing the U.S. war in Iraq, and for several reasons. First, if American and British forces become bogged down in their effort to liquidate the regime of Saddam Hussein, then it is much less likely that Washington will soon... MORE

By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. On March 20, Taiwan's Ministry of Defense disclosed in a Legislative Yuan hearing that it had sent a "special military team" to the Middle East at the invitation of the United States. Its goal: To observe U.S. strategies and tactics... MORE

By Gordon G. Chang Memo to the Pentagon: Don't worry about defending Taiwan. Send the Seventh Fleet home because hostility across the Taiwan Strait will soon become a thing of the past. China will absorb the island republic in a couple years with the consent... MORE

On January 26, 2003, in Sichuan province, China executed Lobsang Dondrup, a Tibetan political prisoner, on allegations of having been involved in bombings aimed at supporting Tibetan independence. The execution, together with the suspended death sentence received by alleged coconspirator Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, is an... MORE

by Willy Lam   Newly elected President Hu Jintao and his allies should take heart from the results of the recently concluded First Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC).   Although the Congress is considered a rubberstamp body, the nearly 3,000 deputies did... MORE

By Gordon G. Chang "It only takes a small group, and we are that small group," says Peng Ming, the revolutionary. "We don't need the general population, and we don't need the overseas dissidents. All we need is a few hundred determined people." And, in... MORE