Executive Summary: Xi Jinping’s vocational education reforms, designed to address a skills gap, have been distorted at the local level, with uneven implementation and coercive measures intensifying stress on students. The centralized power structure of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) incentivizes local officials to... MORE

Executive Summary: The contrasting fates of foreign companies in two recent fraud cases suggest that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) treats firms differently depending on their political utility. AstraZeneca has been guilty of widespread medical insurance fraud but has probably been treated leniently by... MORE

Executive Summary: Smuggling, a critical tool of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to acquire technology to enhance its defense industrial base, is reemerging in the wake of the US Government’s technology controls. Diversion—falsifying the end-user—is another common tactic that the Party has successfully used to... MORE

Executive Summary: A new campaign, “Operation Winter,” has been announced to mobilize public security officials in the wake of deadly attacks across the People’s Republic of China. The operation seeks to mobilize extra human resources and integrated technology to enhance the party-state’s apparatus of “preventive... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to use Hong Kong to test policies and build support for the internationalization of its currency, the renminbi (RMB). The city is now the world’s largest offshore RMB clearing center. The Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS)... MORE

Executive Summary: Xi Jinping faces mounting challenges to his legitimacy from multiple directions, with economic troubles, mass killings, and corruption in the military eroding his grip on power. A spate of unrelated violent incidents and rising social protests across the People’s Republic of China (PRC)... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia has more icebreakers than any other country but far fewer than it needs to ensure passage in the Eastern portions of the Northern Sea Route critical to its trade with China as well as to ensure that the Russian navy can continue... MORE

(Part One) Executive Summary: Russia and China are conducting joint military exercises in the Far East and Arctic as China’s involvement in the region grows and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization expands into the Arctic. Moscow is increasingly aligning with Beijing to bolster its position... MORE

Executive Summary: Centralizing reforms to the Ministry of State Security probably constitute the most important development in China’s civilian intelligence system since its establishment in 1983. These reforms instituted “vertical leadership,” under which the MSS is empowered to control local bureaus’ personnel affairs, budgets, and... MORE

Executive Summary: The Tibet-Aid Program (TAP), a principal driver of development in Tibet, has ramped up significantly under Xi Jinping’s rule. The TAP has, throughout its 30-year history, sought to use material development to placate local tensions that have periodically arisen from the Party’s governance... MORE