In early 2017, CCP Secretary General President Xi Jinping announced his desire to build a “Great Wall of Iron” to apparently promote security and peace in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinhua, March 10, 2017). This is likely a continuation Beijing’s focus on implementing strict... MORE

China has firmly established itself as the world’s dominant manufacturer of clean energy technologies, having been the largest producer of solar photovoltaic cells and modules for at least a decade (Energy Policy, February 2011). The country now accounts for half of all solar manufacturing (International... MORE

Kazakhstanis are increasingly skeptical of close ties with both Russians and Chinese, profoundly limiting the ability of the former to recover the influence Moscow once had there and making it far more difficult for Beijing to move in and supplant it. Further complicating this situation... MORE

Since its inception at a 2013 speech in Kazakhstan, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping has touted his Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a platform for “peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit,” through economic and cultural exchange. (State Council Information... MORE

Iraq: Baghdad Takes ‘Retribution’ on IS in the South The killing by Islamic State (IS) militants of Iraqi security force personnel that the group had been holding hostage has prompted a vicious response from the government. Further, it highlights just how dangerous the jihadists in... MORE

In January 2018, Beijing issued a White Paper on its strategic approach to the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The document notes China wants to take advantage of this shortcut to Europe and the possibilities it opens for extracting natural resources from the Arctic seabed as... MORE

Syria: Government Forces Move on the South Syrian government forces have begun their assault on parts of Syria’s southwest, effectively ending a ceasefire agreement in place since last year and raising fears that Iranian-backed fighters could be left to infiltrate the area. In the weeks... MORE

During the fifth meeting of the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security, held on June 14–15, in the Mongolian capital, regional energy and environmental cooperation projects were major highlights (Mongol Messenger, June 15; UB Post, June 16). Progress was particularly apparent on the “Strategy for... MORE

Russians have long feared that the demographic imbalance between an overpopulated China and an underpopulated Siberia and Russian Far East will eventually result in Beijing’s taking control of what is now part of the Russian Federation. And Moscow has manipulated that fear since Soviet times... MORE

Some, especially in the West, have argued that United States President Donald Trump has effectively sidelined Russia from the rapidly evolving Korean situation by his rapprochement with North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, at the recent summit in Singapore. But such suggestions cloud years of Russian... MORE