“There is no quota for the anti-graft campaign, and there is no upper limit [regarding the rank of cadres to be disciplined].” This is the latest instruction given by Chinese President Xi Jinping on the clean-governance crusade that has shaken up the Chinese Communist Party... MORE

An unprecedented number of personnel moves and promotions within the PLA have occurred under President Xi. The Chinese press suggests that the promotions and shuffling of personnel are due to ongoing anti-corruption campaigns in the Chinese government and the military (Caixin, January 8; South China... MORE

Formal military relations between China and Iran made a series of strides in 2013 and 2014. These included high-level leadership visits and unprecedented port calls involving the two countries’ navies. This article seeks to place those developments into context and offers a discussion on their... MORE

On January 20, U.S. President Barack Obama gave his second to last State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress, striking out a bold vision for his last two years in office. While the speech mainly focused on domestic issues, especially the economy and... MORE

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s new round of state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform and his anti-corruption campaign will dramatically change the preferences and performance of SOEs’ overseas economic expansion. The economic and political initiatives undertaken by Xi meet in the state sector, as the Chinese government is... MORE

The Chinese government is known for its heavy-handed censorship of the country’s Internet, now with a user base of about 665 million. After the blockage or shut down of a series of social media accounts, commercial websites, text messaging applications, online libraries and cloud computing... MORE

During the November 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Beijing was not only an impressive host, but also a generous financial supporter of a number of China-centered initiatives. The largest economic package during the APEC summit went to the second China-Russia mega deal of the... MORE

The United States’ muted profile in mineral-rich, landlocked Mongolia receded even more in 2014. Indeed, the US has largely stood by while Mongolia deliberately integrated its faltering economy closer with its two neighbors, China and Russia. Last year, top-level Mongolian officials met with Chinese President... MORE

Uzbekistan is conveniently located at the center of Central Asia and borders on all Central Asian countries as well as Afghanistan; moreover, it lies in relatively close proximity to the various prodigiously developing markets of Asia. Nonetheless, Uzbekistan has been slow to embrace or champion... MORE

North Korea’s suspected role in the November 2014 cyber attack on Sony Pictures, a Japanese-owned film studio in Hollywood, has once again dragged China into a discussion of its role in and responsibility for preventing or limiting North Korea’s provocations. Recent revelations of desperate North... MORE