Executive Summary: Two waves of recent purges in the People’s Liberation Army have focused on Xi Jinping’s two major bases of support, the Shaanxi Gang and the Fujian Clique, likely eroding his power over the military. A series of articles in the PLA Daily in... MORE

Executive Summary: Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping has solidified his position as the driving force behind achieving a “high-quality socialist market economy” by 2029. The recent CCP Central Committee Plenum indicated that he would rule until at least 2032. The Third Plenary... MORE

On October 7–8, Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi (蔡奇) chaired the National Conference on Propaganda, Ideology, and Cultural Work (People’s Daily, October 9). This was the third installment of a quinquennial series of conferences dedicated to such work. This year’s edition moved beyond those... MORE

Introduction On January 1, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) put into effect new revisions to its National Defense Law (henceforth, “Law”) (中华人民共和国国防法 zhonghua renmin gonghe guo guofang fa) (Xinhua, December 26, 2020; South China Morning Post, January 3).[1] This is the first update since... MORE

Introduction Since 1988, the journal Qiushi (求是), produced bimonthly by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, has served as the CCP’s leading official theoretical journal. Commenced under the tenures of then-CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang and then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, the journal was intended... MORE