What’s China’s Game in the Middle East?
RACHEL BEITARIE, MASSOUD HAYOUN, TAI MING CHEUNGRachel Beitarie:Xi Jinping’s four point proposal for a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement is interesting not so much for its content, as for its source. While China has maintained the appearance of being involved in Middle East politics for years, its top leaders, so far,...
What’s Really at the Core of China’s “Core...
SHAI OSTER, ANDREW J. NATHAN, ORVILLE SCHELL (& authors)Shai Oster:It’s Pilates diplomacy—work on your core. China’s diplomats keep talking about China’s core interests and it’s a growing list. In 2011, China included its political system and social stability as core interests. This year, it has added a vast chunk of the...
Sino-American Relations: Amour or Les Miserables?
WINSTON LORDWinston Lord, former United States Ambassador to China, tells us he recently hacked into the temples of government, pecking at his first-generation iPad with just one finger—a clear sign that both Beijing and Washington need to beef...
Leftist Hawks and Conspiracy Theorists: The People’s...
TEA LEAF NATIONIs Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, turning into a new war zone? Dai Xu, a colonel in the Chinese Air Force and military strategist, thinks so.“A month ago, a pseudo-Japanese devil [derogatory term for pro-Japan Chinese] at Shanghai’s Fudan University besieged me and Luo Yuan....
China, North Korea, and Nuclear Arms
OUYANG BIN, DAVID M. BARREDA, ZHANG XIAORAN (& authors)As tensions again escalate on the Korean Peninsula, ChinaFile examines more than a decade of developments in North Korea’s nuclear armaments program. We begin our timeline in late 2002, when China first joined diplomatic discussions, paving the way for what would become...
Christopher Hill on North Korea’s Provocations
OUYANG BINThe first months of 2013 have seen a rapid intensification of combative rhetoric and action from North Korea. In the sixteen months since Kim Jong-un assumed leadership of the country, North Korea has run through the whole litany of provocations his father’s regime had deployed...
Singing a Note of Caution About New First Lady Peng...
TEA LEAF NATIONXi Jinping, the newly appointed Chinese President, unfolded his presidency with a grand foreign tour to Russia, Tanzania, South Africa, and the Republic of the Congo. While this series of state visits unequivocally underscored China’s diplomatic emphasis on its neighboring...
Can China Transform Africa?
JEREMY GOLDKORN, ISABEL HILTON, DONALD CLARKEJeremy Goldkorn:The question is all wrong. China is already transforming Africa, the question is how China is transforming Africa, not whether it can. From the “China shops”—small stores selling cheap clothing, bags, and kitchenware—that have become ubiquitous in Southern...
Are Proposed Sanctions on North Korea a Hopeful Sign...
ORVILLE SCHELL, SUSAN SHIRK, SUZANNE DIMAGGIO (& authors)Orville Schell:What may end up being most significant about the new draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council to impose stricter sanctions on North Korea, which China seems willing to sign, may not be what it amounts to in terms of denuclearizing the DPRK, but what it...
Star Spangled Security
HAROLD BROWN WITH JOYCE WINSLOWFormer U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown served during the hottest part of the Cold War when the Soviet Union presented an existential threat to America. In Star Spangled Security, Dr. Brown, one of the most respected wise men of American foreign policy, gives an insider’s...
On China’s Twitter, Discussion of Hacking Attacks...
TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMEAs The New York Times reported yesterday evening, U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant has just released a deeply troubling report called “Exposing One of China’s Cyber Espionage Units.” The report alleges wide-spread hacking sponsored by the People’s Liberation Army,...