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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

By Robert Sutter [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 the... MORE

By Gordon G. Chang [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

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam The United States and its allies are opposed to terrorism. The Chinese, however, are opposed to "all forms of terrorism." Or, as Chinese President Jiang Zemin put it in Beijing on returning from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shanghai:... MORE