On May 20, Ma Ying-jeou was sworn in as the president of Taiwan (Republic of China), in an election that marks the first successive transfer of power in Taiwan’s fledgling democracy since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the 2000 presidential election. President Ma’s much... MORE

The explosive growth of China’s links to Latin America in recent years are but the latest developments in a history that reaches back to the Spanish colonial empire in the early-16th century. In some ways the perceived benefits and liabilities have not changed much over... MORE

Less than a week prior to the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province on May 12, Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Japan for his first state visit as agreed to during Japanese Prime Minister Yasuko Fukuda’s visit to China last December (China Brief, January... MORE

The primary outcome of Hu Jintao’s recent visit to Japan was a joint statement between the Chinese president and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, issued on May 7. According to this statement the leaders agreed to make the East China Sea a sea of “peace,... MORE

China is leading the new wave of regional cooperation in Southeast Asia, and China-driven mechanisms for regional cooperation look set to overwhelm all possible areas of economic and political cooperation. For economic, security, diplomatic and military reasons, China has been developing stronger relationships with Association... MORE

When a camel meets a dragon, it would not usually raise eyebrows. If, however, there are huge economic stakes and strategic interests in the interaction between two ambitious growing economies—one being the world's fastest-growing economy and the other a forward-moving enigmatic desert economy—then it is... MORE

At a banquet to welcome visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao in April 2005, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo proclaimed that in view of China’s eagerness to invest in the country’s crumbling infrastructure, booming Philippine exports to the PRC, and a recently concluded agreement among the... MORE

On February 9, 2008 the Burmese government announced a plan for an unprecedented referendum on a new constitution, which will be held in May, to be followed by a multi-party election in 2010 (Agence France-Presse, February 9). On February 19, the government declared that the... MORE

A source of serious interstate tension between some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China for much of the 1990s, territorial disputes in the South China Sea became less contentious in the early 2000s: A less assertive stance by China being... MORE

Liu Guchang, the Chinese ambassador to Russia, announced that the demarcation of borders for the Heixiazi Island (Bol’shoi Ussuriiskiy Island) is complete and the island will be officially returned to the People's Republic of China's (PRC) jurisdiction by the end of 2008 (China Times, March... MORE