While the July 23 bullet train crash in the east China city of Wenzhou has damaged the credibility of the country’s high-speed railway program, Beijing’s apparent failure to prescribe effective remedial measures such as restructuring the Ministry of Railways (MOR) has cast doubt on the... MORE

The theme for this year’s annual People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Day press was civil-military integration (军民融合) for national defense. If Defense Minister Liang Guanglie’s article “Persevere in Civil-Military Integration with Chinese Characteristics” headlining the Central Party School’s journal Qiushi did not provide enough emphasis, official... MORE

After the 2002 Bali bombings, Indonesia recognized that the main threat to national security came from regional terrorist networks whose leaders returned to Indonesia after Suharto fell from power in 1998. An elite counterterrorism unit, Densus 88 (Detasemen Khusus 88, or Special Detachment 88), was... MORE

Executive Summary:In the weeks following the July 13 bomb explosions in Mumbai, responsibility for the attacks has yet to be determined. Investigative agencies have not yet pinpointed a suspect nor has any terrorist group claimed the blasts as its own doing, perhaps in order to... MORE

July 1 marked the launch of the now “fully operational” Customs Union (Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia) fueling debate on the future of the post-Soviet space and even the grouping itself. Indeed, ruptures have already revealed themselves among existing members (such as the recent “tariff wars”... MORE

Observers of China’s naval development generally accept that Chinese anti-submarine warfare (ASW) remains an Achilles’ Heel of the otherwise highly methodical and quite remarkable evolution of Chinese maritime power.  While Beijing will soon be able to boast about its first aircraft carrier and continues to... MORE

The foundation of China’s policies toward Russia and Central Asia since 1991 lies in the border treaties it signed with these states over this period.  Those treaties demarcated the borders between China and all the post-Soviet successor states: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.  These treaties... MORE

China Reacts to Admiral Mullen Visit Beijing heralded US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, visit to China as an important step forward, signifying the normalization US-China military relations. Chinese magazine Liaowang described military-to-military relations as an important barometer of US-China... MORE

This is the second of a two-part series about the grade (zhiwu dengji) system of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and how China’s forthcoming carrier might fit into the fleet structure of the PLA Navy (PLAN). Part 1 provided an overview of the PLA’s Table... MORE

A high-speed train crash near Wenzhou in the coastal Chinese province of Zhejiang took the lives of at least 39 people on July 23 and has raised equal measures of fear, anger and astonishment across the country. Preliminary reports indicate that a bullet train running... MORE