Executive Summary: Russia’s state-owned nuclear corporation, Rosatom, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have taken the most tangible step thus far in nuclear energy cooperation from the bilateral to the institutional level, with the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding. The Kremlin... MORE

Executive Summary: Xi Jinping could unveil a “global environmental initiative” as soon as mid-November 2025, at the COP31 summit in Brazil. This would align with previous initiatives that have been announced at international forums. This new initiative would complete a set of five that matches... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has responded to an alleged U.S. cyberattack on its National Time Service Center (NTSC) by constructing a narrative of empire and victimhood, consolidating its alignment with global south countries against U.S. hegemony. Chinese analysts have used the... MORE

Executive Summary: Online messaging campaigns from the Ministry of State Security (MSS) seek to educate citizens about national security threats and to instill a suspicion of foreigners, especially those from West countries. Numerous examples in WeChat posts from 2025 detail ways in which foreign spies... MORE

Executive Summary: Economic planning for systemic rivalry: The Fourth Plenum ratified the culmination of a decade-long project to fuse national planning, security strategy, and technological control under Xi Jinping’s direct command. The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) formalizes this system as a doctrine of strategic endurance—a... MORE

Executive Summary: In 2025, Beijing has intensified its approach to Taiwan across legal, military, discourse, and political dimensions. In October, a local public security bureau opened investigation into a sitting Taiwanese lawmaker for the first time, enhancing its legal warfare tactics against the democratic state.... MORE

Executive Summary: The Global Governance Initiative (GGI), announced by Xi Jinping at the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, marks a strategic evolution from sectoral cooperation to competition for global governance leadership. It critiques the so-called “global governance deficit” (全球治理赤字), which lead to the underrepresentation... MORE

Executive Summary: The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has launched a new “clean and bright” campaign that redefines online frustration over youth unemployment, gender conflict, and social anxiety as “negative energy” that threatens People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) national security. Expressions that contradict the Party’s... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) closely studies the Russia–Ukraine conflict, viewing Ukraine’s innovative use of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) as a transformative model for future naval warfare and asymmetric operations. Chinese analysts emphasize the cost-effectiveness, mass-producibility, modular flexibility, and stealth of USVs, framing them as... MORE

Executive Summary: Growing investments by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline infrastructure are increasing its geopolitical influence in energy markets. PRC LNG re-exports have increased dramatically from 2022, with re-exports surging nearly 770 percent from 2024. Recent progress... MORE