Recent days have seen a burst of relatively moderate views from official opinion-makers in China. Global Times chief editor Hu Xijin wrote in his weibo blog last week that “our country has indeed in the recent past adopted some high-sounding rhetoric.” “This has boosted the... MORE

With the help of major tech companies from the UK and Japan, China may be poised to take an important step towards isolating its microchip supply chain from US pressure, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accelerates an indigenous technology drive in the face of... MORE

It could be assumed that the intensifying trade war between the United States and China would cause economic slowdown in China and result, in the long run, in the drastic reduction of Chinese imports of energy resources from Kazakhstan. But in his recent interview to... MORE

The end of April was extraordinarily rich in high-profile international events—and Russia was conspicuously absent from all these dynamics. The president of South Korea and the North Korean dictator planted a pine tree of peace just to the south of the ceasefire line that still... MORE

On April 12, Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili, along with three other high-level Georgian officials, participated in a joint People’s Bank of China–International Monetary Fund conference on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in Beijing. During the conference, Kumsishvili and Chinese Minister of Transport Li... MORE

The March meeting of China’s two national level parliaments, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese Peoples’ Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), was notable for more than just formalizing the abolition of term limits for state president. It also signaled the end of much of the... MORE

For more than a decade, Russian policymakers have fruitlessly tried to turn the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which connects Asia and Europe along Russia’s northern coastline, into a viable commercial shipping route (Jamestown Eurasian Daily Monitor, April 29, 2016). PRC financial muscle might finally be... MORE

On March 21, the Chinese government announced a major restructuring of the People's Armed Police (PAP) that will relegate all but one of its current units to other ministries, meaning that these units' staff will no longer be part of the military service (National Audit... MORE

CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s sweeping reorganization of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 2016 was meant to shake up ossified bureaucracies, boost operational jointness and technical ability, and refocus the PLA on its mission to “fight and win wars” (China Brief, January 12). It... MORE

Though most Western scholars do not believe that a real Russo-Chinese alliance actually exists, the arguments of Russian experts and the results of the recent bilateral ministerial meetings of the two countries’ foreign and defense ministries (both held on April 5, in Moscow) suggest otherwise.... MORE