China’s military forces crossed a watershed when the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) celebrated its 60th birthday by holding a parade of state-of-the-art hardware such as indigenously developed nuclear submarines. That the 2.4-million strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) has attained quasi-superpower status was also supported... MORE

China’s soft and quiescent reaction to Pyongyang’s rocket gamesmanship seems to contradict the image of global statesmanship that President Hu Jintao projected at the G20 summit in London earlier this month. And Beijing’s last-minute agreement to a UN Security Council chastisement of the Kim Jong-Il... MORE

Beijing is beefing up its control apparatus to counter unprecedented challenges to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) administration this year. Apart from on-going protests in the Greater Tibet Region, the police, state security, People’s Armed Police (PAP) and other units are bracing themselves against demonstrations,... MORE

Premier Wen Jiabao has pulled out all the stops to reassure the National People’s Congress (China’s parliament)—and the world—that the Hu-Wen government’s revamped stimulus package can ensure an eight percent growth rate this year. That the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has discouraged NPC deputies from... MORE

Beijing has unleashed an unprecedented diplomatic blitz while the new Obama administration battles doubts about its stimulus packages to salvage the struggling American economy. For the first time, both Chinese State President Hu Jintao and Vice-President Xi Jinping were on trips abroad earlier this month—the... MORE

Even as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership pulls out all the stops to resuscitate the economy, it is grappling with the even more daunting task of maintaining social stability. Apart from familiar issues such as rising unemployment (see Pieter Bottelier’s article in this issue),... MORE

Even as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is projecting hard power across the four corners of the earth, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is mapping out a multi-pronged strategy to publicize globally the apparent viability of the “China model.” The administration of President Hu Jintao... MORE

The year 2009 is set to become a watershed in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) development into a force capable of long-distance, multi-pronged power projection. This is despite the perception that owing to the global recession, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership under President Hu... MORE

While expectations for policy changes are not high as Beijing marks the 30th anniversary of the reform era, a clutch of forward-looking cadres and intellectuals are taking advantage of the occasion to press for bolder measures particularly in political liberalization. This is despite the fact... MORE

China’s $586 billion (4 trillion yuan) stimulus package, which was announced before last weekend’s G20 Summit in Washington, has been hailed as indicative of Beijing’s commitment to stave off further bleeding from the global recession. World Bank Vice-President Justin Lin noted that the resuscitation effort... MORE