The Islamic State, established by the self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in June, has received unprecedented support from the Islamic world, spanning from the Middle East to the far corners of Southeast Asia. The Islamic State’s influence has reached the Indonesian shores as well, where... MORE

On December 11, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gave his annual speech encapsulating China’s foreign policy successes over the last year (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, December 11). He highlighted China’s growing role in the global economy, its economic outreach through new multilateral institutions, peripheral diplomacy... MORE

Since the top leaders of South Korea and China rose to power in 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping has appeared determined to overwhelm South Korean President Park Geun-Hye by embarking on a major diplomatic and economic charm offensive. China’s incessant charm offensive has made some... MORE

At the Central Work Conference on Foreign Relations held on November 29, China’s leaders outlined the most sweeping changes in decades to longstanding guidance on foreign policy. Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined instructions to consolidate China’s leadership of Asia and strengthen international support for Chinese... MORE

On January 22, 2013, Guangming Daily reported the market launch of China’s first independently developed high-end computer server, the Tiansuo K1, and touted the homemade server’s leading role in “breaking a long-term import situation” (Guangming Daily, January 22, 2013). [1] The Tiansuo K1 represents the... MORE

China has the second largest number of think tanks in the world (426), behind only the United States (1,826). [1] On October 27, at the sixth meeting of the Leading Group for Overall Reform, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a new type of think... MORE

Taiwan’s largest election ever, on November 29, led to a rousing, if not expected, defeat of Taiwan’s governing and pro-status quo party, the Kuomintang (KMT), by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), dealing a crushing blow to Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration. Moreover, the election... MORE

Chinese intelligence operations have long been understood in the West as somehow different than more familiar forms of espionage: inscrutable, undirected and largely run by amateurs. Like most modern states, China, however, has entrusted intelligence to professional organizations. This second installment on China’s espionage against... MORE

Even for a country that is notable for its myriad contradictions, the gap between China’s hard and soft power has never been more pronounced. The year 2014 has witnessed the kind of global hard-power projection that is unprecedented in recent Chinese history. The two-year-old Xi... MORE

Chinese President and Commander-in-Chief Xi Jinping’s military reform plan, announced at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee in November 2013, will take form over the next several years (see China Brief, November 20, 2013). The reforms, which appear... MORE