By Michael E. Marti China is entering into a transition period as the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) prepares to hold its 16th Party Congress in the fall of 2002. At that time, most members of the current Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), the third-generation leaders--Mao... MORE

By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. On September 30 the U.S. Department of Defense released its long-awaited Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), a document that been used by successive administrations to convey its strategic military intentions. Early expectations that this QDR would be Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's blueprint... MORE

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam Beijing hopes to benefit from Washington's war on terrorism on two primary fronts: mending fences with the United States and gaining ground on Taiwan.

By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. While the United States is correct to seek China's assistance in what will be a long war against terrorism, it should harbor no illusions that China will share all of America's goals in this fight, or that China will cease... MORE

By June Teufel Dreyer Reports that Chinese responded with laughter to pictures of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are bewildering. More Chinese nationals perished in these attacks than when the United States accidentally bombed the PRC's embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Moreover, available... MORE

By David G. Wiencek Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, China's statements on its readiness to support the United States and the emerging international coalition in the urgent fight against global terrorism have been mixed and accompanied by caveats. On a... MORE

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam They are never reported in the official New China News Agency. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or government spokesmen would not even confirm that the so-called Beidaihe conferences had ever been held. Yet every summer since the 1980s, senior leaders from Beijing... MORE

By Nan Li Unless an acute CCP leadership crisis occurs in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on the scale of the Cultural Revolution or the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident, it is not very likely that the leadership of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will play... MORE

By Keith B. Payne Over the course of the Cold War decades, U.S. nuclear doctrine reflected great confidence that deterrence of the Soviet Union could be "ensured" by a "stable" deterrence relationship. "Stable" deterrence came to be viewed as the near-certain product of a nuclear... MORE

By June Teufel Dreyer Beijing's recent disclosure that at least ten directors of public security (police) bureaus at or above county level were found to have close connections with local criminal syndicates highlights concern that a fusion of political and criminal elements is undermining popular... MORE