The common desire of Moscow and Beijing to develop railways linking Asia with Europe is not making as much progress as the two parties had hoped or as many had expected. This is due in part to international concerns involving third countries, including the Central... MORE

Russians have become increasingly concerned about Chinese economic and even demographic penetration of Siberia and the Russian Far East; but in most cases, Chinese actions have been blessed by Moscow, which sees them as a source of immediate profit regardless of what the longer-term consequences... MORE

Introduction Ever since the seeming collapse of U.S.-China trade talks in early May (China Brief, May 29), state media outlets of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have unleashed a vitriolic campaign to blame the breakdown of the talks on the alleged bad faith of... MORE

Introduction—Disputes Over the Extradition Bill Spill into the Streets of Hong Kong On Sunday, June 9, just over one million Hong Kong residents took part in a protest rally against the introduction of the “Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment)... MORE

Introduction—Nordic and Baltic Governments Seek Common Positions for Relations with China On April 1, 2019, a meeting was held between the foreign ministers of the Baltic States and Nordic Countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland), or NB8; and of the Visegrád... MORE

Introduction The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s China Military Power Report, released in January 2019, revealed the agency’s official assessment that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is conducting “political warfare” against the United States and Taiwan—and among other countries, Japan. [1] Political warfare is a... MORE

Authors’ Note: This is the first part of a two-part article addressing the evolving character of Chinese strategy and policy regarding the role and potential use of nuclear weapons. This first article uses authoritative Chinese texts to identify key features of China’s approach to nuclear... MORE

The 23rd St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which convened on June 6–8, was, as every year, pronounced a huge success by the Russian authoriti­es. Certainly, the 19,000 participants from 145 countries and the 3.1 trillion rubles’ ($49 billion) worth of contracts announced marked new records... MORE

Three developments since early June 2019 call attention to China’s unrelenting efforts to become the dominant player on the Northern Sea Route (NSR)—the increasingly ice-free Arctic waterway along Russia’s northern coast, and the main segment of the longer Northeastern Passage, linking Asia and Europe. First,... MORE

The annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was held last week (June 6–8) with the usual pomp and spin. But the traditional goal of attracting Western investments was clearly replaced with an urge to advertise the strength of ties between Russia and China. President Xi... MORE