Latest China Brief Articles

ON THE SUBJECT OF MISINFORMATION

Ying Ma's Question & Duzhe Mei's Answer THE QUESTION I think that Mei Duzhe's "How China's Government Is Attempting to Control Chinese Media in America" in your November 21 issue overestimates the influence of the Chinese government and underestimates the willingness of Chinese to be... MORE

HU JINTAO: THE BIRD THAT KEEPS ITS HEAD DOWN

A Chinese saying best describes the risk of showing one's clear political or ideological leanings: "The bird that sticks its head out gets shot." Hu Jintao, the man who is widely expected to succeed Jiang Zemin as head of the Communist Party in 2002 and... MORE

ZENG QINGHONG: A POTENTIAL CHALLENGER TO CHINA’S HEIR APPARENT

By Wen Yu Since the Chinese communists came to power in 1949, China has suffered gravely from succession politics. During the Maoist era that ended in 1976, convulsive political tensions and struggles surrounding the succession issue had greatly damaged the relationships among the ruling elite... MORE

TAIWAN’S UPCOMING ELECTIONS

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam As with Taiwan elections for the past several years, President Jiang Zemin has set up a special task force of civilian and military aides to monitor developments in the run-up to the December 1 parliamentary polls on the island. Jiang, who... MORE

THE CHINESE THREAT: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

India's defense minister, George Fernandes, has identified an implicit Chinese threat in the shared border between the two countries. In his words, "[t]o underplay the situation across the Himalayas is not in the national interest; it can in fact create a lot of problems for... MORE

PRC FOREIGN POLICY OUTLOOK

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam PRC Vice President Hu Jintao's relatively high-profile trip to five European countries has raised two basic questions about Chinese foreign policy.

ON TAIWAN, BEIJING KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT IT IS DOING

China's stated policy towards Taiwan is that there is one China, and Taiwan is part of that China. Given this, how will China act upon this policy to make it a reality? China sees three paths for action: negotiation with Taiwan, political victory for pro-unification... MORE

CHINA’S STAKE IN A SECURE TAIWAN

The Bush administration in May 2001 approved an arms package to Taiwan that, though falling short of the Taiwan government's "wish list" of state-of-the-art weaponry, goes far to beef up the defenses of the island republic. Maintaining such balanced support for Taiwan is the right... MORE

WHAT IF CHANG IS RIGHT?

By June Teufel Dreyer [For this issue China Brief is pleased to offer a debate on Gordon Chang's recent book "The Coming Collapse of China" (Random House, 2001). In his book Chang offers alarming analysis of China's economic and social weakness and the inability of... MORE