Introduction At the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last October, General Secretary Xi Jinping lauded the achievements of his anti-corruption campaign, reminding the audience that a total of 207,000 “top leaders” (一把手) at all levels had been investigated by the discipline... MORE

Introduction Kazakhstan is seeking to boost bilateral ties with China, which is reopening international travel after abandoning its Zero-COVID policy late last year (Kazinform, January 17). However, “Kazakh Gen Zs” born in the 2000s are worried about their country’s increasing dependency on China. [1] “China is... MORE

Introduction The existential North Korean nuclear and missile threats negatively impact the Asia-Pacific security environment for the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia. In response, these countries have taken countermeasures to defend themselves against the growing danger from North Korea. As a result, North... MORE

Introduction The fentanyl epidemic was born in America, rose from the supply of precursor chemicals made in China and is now even more destructive as Mexican drug cartels profit from huge demand. The involvement of suppliers of fentanyl precursors from China is a controversial issue... MORE

Long lines of cars have recently been reported at Beijing’s funeral homes and crematoriums (VOA Chinese, December 17). This body backlog belies official assurances that COVID-19  deaths in China’s capital remain in the single digits. At times, the dichotomy between the reality of the COVID-19... MORE

Introduction General Secretary Xi Jinping has a long record of breaking with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rules and conventions. At the recently concluded 20th Party Congress, he made himself the “party core for life” by revising the CCP charter and reinforced that position by filling... MORE

Introduction At the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 20th Party Congress in late October, five diplomats were selected as full Central Committee members, one of whom will be appointed as China’s next foreign minister (FM) at the National People’s Congress (NPC) next March (Xinhuanet, October 22;... MORE

Introduction “Security” was the operative word in General Secretary Xi Jinping’s opening report to the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this October. Xi stressed that the Party has stood firm against “external attempts to blackmail, contain, blockade and exert maximum pressure”... MORE

On November 30, with mass protests only recently suppressed in Beijing and Shanghai and still simmering in Guangzhou and Chongqing, state media notified the “whole party, army and country” that former General Secretary Jiang Zemin, who led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from mid-1989 to... MORE

The apparent failure by Beijing to determine new ways to handle the COVID-19 pandemic given what many consider the largest mass protests since the student movement of 1989 has exposed the limited abilities of the new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership to handle unexpected events... MORE