Even for China’s unusually well-traveled president, Xi Jinping, the past month has seen a large number of important visits, culminating in the Asia Pacific Economic Partnership (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting in Manila. Xi conducted his first state visits to Vietnam and Singapore, which included the... MORE

China has set the tone for government policy over the next five years with the announcement of the results of the Fifth Plenum of the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (State Council Information Office, October 30). Amid the various announced plans for increased transparency, a... MORE

China has conducted its first joint Internet Anti-Terror Exercise (网络演习), “Xiamen 2015,” with the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) (Xinhua, October 14). Teams from all of the SCO’s member states, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, participated (Xiamen TV, October 14). This... MORE

In late September, China conducted the first launch of two new types of rocket, the Long March 6, and the Long March 11 (China Military Online, September 20; People’s Daily Overseas Edition, September 26). While much of the media attention in September focused on the... MORE

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit the United States next week, the seventh time since he first visited the country as Secretary of Zhengding County in Hebei in 1985 (People’s Daily Online, September 16). According to Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokesperson... MORE

On September 3, China held a military parade commemorating the end of World War II (WWII). A departure from previous parades, which only took place on China’s October 1 National Day, this parade had a significant international focus, featuring troops from 17 countries, veterans of... MORE

This past week marked the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II. On August 14, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a speech commemorating the end of the war and expressing regret and repentance for Japan’s role in the war... MORE

Immediately following the May release of its new maritime-focused National Defense White Paper, China is practicing “new type naval combat force” operations in the South China Sea (Xinhua, May 26; China Military Online, July 28). Several joint air-sea exercises involve “tens” of aircraft, hundreds of... MORE

As global attention focuses on China’s rising tensions with neighboring states in the South China Sea, violence has erupted elsewhere in the region, this time along China's border with Myanmar. Widely ignored in the western media, the cross-border tension is part of a long-smoldering Burmese... MORE

In mid-June, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lu Kang announced that Chinese land reclamation efforts would soon end, hopefully marking the end of tensions caused by China’s rapid expansion of a number of land features in the South China Sea (MOFA, June 16). Although... MORE