For a man once mistakenly thought to be on the sidelines, Zhou Yongkang had a busy September leading a security delegation to Singapore, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan (“Zhou Yongkang and the Tarnished Reputation of China’s Police,” China Brief, March 30). The delegation included Chinese Communist Party... MORE

Close examination of relevant Chinese-Uzbekistani documents for the past years exposed a curious pattern of repetitive enunciation of strong mutual political trust that exists between the two countries. Entire bilateral documents and reports in official news agencies are permeated with this phrase (Api.uz, June 7,... MORE

Recent Chinese diplomatic maneuvers in Central Asia, both bilateral and multilateral, show that Beijing’s strategy treats the region as a corridor for reaching resource bases in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa. Central Asia is thus part of China’s broader blueprint of securing strategic resources... MORE

Earlier this month, China and Malaysia held the first ever defense and security consultation between their two defense ministries in Kuala Lumpur. The landmark event was just the latest in a series of advances which suggest that, on the surface, Sino-Malaysian relations are at an... MORE

Occurring amid a groundswell of revolutionary activism in the Arab world, the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 heralds a new era for Egypt.  Under Mubarak’s authoritarian rule, Egypt embodied the paradigm of stability pursued by its longtime ally the United States... MORE

Once again Tokyo and Beijing played with fire over the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islets in the East China Sea, operating under the assumption that the consequent outbursts of nationalism can be contained indefinitely and will not degenerate to the extent that they would threaten... MORE

Vice President Xi Jinping’s “reappearance” last Saturday after an absence of two weeks signaled that preparations for the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress, which is slated for the second half of October, were on track. Beijing is even awash with speculation that the high-profile... MORE

Social management issues and reform have been linked clearly to fulfilling the vision of improving people’s livelihood and Hu Jintao’s “harmonious society.” With the future of social management and political reform ostensible on the agenda for the 18th Party Congress, Chinese research departments seem to... MORE

When Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Cai Yingting spoke with the Chinese media during his visit to Washington in August, he emphasized the importance of building “a new type of military-to-military relationship with the United States” (China Daily,... MORE

At time when leaders in China and Japan were expecting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the two states with a series of celebrations across both countries, instead leaders in both states are working to contain the latest nationalist flare-ups... MORE