Sino-Mongolian relations improved during the fall, with a pair of official visits demonstrating progress on both economic and military ties. The first was Mongolian Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag’s trip to China on October 22–26. During the visit Altankhuyag and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang agreed to... MORE

Cyberspace is emerging as a contentious frontier in cross-Strait relations. Overt military tension in the Taiwan Strait has ostensibly given way to a cold war in the cyber-domain. A surge in China-sponsored cyber intrusions was highlighted recently by Taiwan’s intelligence chief, Tsai Der-sheng. In remarks... MORE

Kazakhstan plans to introduce new anti-corruption legislation and to rid the judicial system of corruption. But the country has a long way to go to move up from 133rd place in the Corruption Perceptions Index, where it was listed by Transparency International in 2012. Ranked... MORE

With China promoting its own Silk Road vision in Central Asia, it seems that the New Silk Road Initiative promoted by the United States has been eclipsed. Nonetheless, there is still an opportunity for the US to promote much-needed trade relations between Central Asia and... MORE

For Taiwan, November has been marked by a burst of activity on the regional trade front. On November 7, Taiwan signed a free trade agreement with Singapore, a day after signing five smaller economic deals with Japan on e-commerce, pharmaceutical regulation, railways, patent recognition and... MORE

The Ukrainian authorities have seemingly activated a “pause” in Kyiv’s European integration process. President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, which controls the government and holds an overwhelming plurality in the parliament, blocked all of the opposition’s attempts to vote through European integration draft laws on... MORE

Russia’s Office of the General Prosecutor officially petitioned that Belarus extradite Vladislav Baumgaertner, the Russian potash producer Uraslkalii’s CEO, under arrest in Minsk since August 26. The petition is under consideration. It appears that it was directed to Minsk as early as October 22 but... MORE

While the recent Third Plenary Session of the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee was expected to unveil major initiatives in economic liberalization, what has struck Chinese and foreign observers most is the weight that the leadership has given to enhancing state security, particularly... MORE

Kazakhstan, as other natural resource-rich countries, faces a difficult task of diversifying its economy and avoiding the resource curse. Indeed, the share of natural resources rents in GDP, which is the sum of oil, natural gas, coal, mineral, and forest rents, in Kazakhstan was 38.2... MORE

With the signing of a new friendship and cooperation treaty at a bilateral summit in Yekaterinburg on November 11, Russia and Kazakhstan aimed to move their relations to a new phase, but tensions related to regional integration evidently remain. Two weeks earlier in Minsk, Kazakhstani... MORE