When President George W. Bush met Chinese President Hu Jintao at the APEC meeting in Sydney on September 6, trade and Taiwan appeared to dominate their agenda. Little notice, however, was made of one of President Bush’s talking points: Burma. The U.S. government has long... MORE

When President George W. Bush met Chinese President Hu Jintao at the APEC meeting in Sydney on September 6, trade and Taiwan appeared to dominate their agenda. Little notice, however, was made of one of President Bush’s talking points: Burma. The U.S. government has long... MORE

The liberal faction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doing eleventh-hour lobbying to have genuine political reform included in the agenda of the upcoming 17th Party Congress. Yet all signs point to the fact that General Secretary and President Hu Jintao will only promote... MORE

With the 17th Party Congress less than one month away, an increasing number of Chinese scholars have come out in support of political liberalization in China. Most recently, in an interview with the PRC-owned Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao, Wang Guixiu, a professor at... MORE

On the surface, the recent death of Politburo Standing Committee member and First Vice Premier Huang Ju presents President Hu Jintao with an opportunity to further consolidate his power by marginalizing the influence of the rival Shanghai Faction within the Chinese leadership. A former mayor... MORE

Understanding the inner workings of China’s Politburo has always been a difficult challenge for observers. Pervasive secrecy has forced scholars to rely on dubious articles in Hong Kong newspapers—usually based on anonymous, questionable sources—to speculate upon the concerns of the Chinese leadership. In a notable... MORE

Understanding the inner workings of China’s Politburo has always been a difficult challenge for observers. Pervasive secrecy has forced scholars to rely on dubious articles in Hong Kong newspapers—usually based on anonymous, questionable sources—to speculate upon the concerns of the Chinese leadership. In a notable... MORE

There are no simple answers when it comes to the questions of whether or how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will become a democracy. The democratic transition of the world’s most populous nation, if it occurs, will certainly be no easy task. At present,... MORE