On Tuesday, January 31, China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union in reaching an agreement to report Iran’s nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which in turn will take up the matter in March after... MORE

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds a Congress of Delegates every five years to pick a new Central Committee and Politburo. While the 17th CCP Congress is not due to take place until autumn 2007, President and General Secretary Hu Jintao has already started the... MORE

In December 2005 China and Kazakhstan opened the Atasu-Alashankou pipeline, the first intended to export Kazakh and Russian oil to China. This 988 kilometer pipeline is expected to be fully operational by 2007, when China’s domestic pipeline and refinery capabilities are adequately updated, and is... MORE

Editor’s Note: This special issue of Jamestown’s China Brief is released just as the Chinese government revised its figures upward on the incidence of domestic social unrest. Yesterday, January 19, the Public Security Bureau revealed that the government recorded 87,000 “public order disturbances” in 2005—a... MORE

China continues to impress the world with its high GDP growth, staggering trading volumes and surging consumption appetite. Most figures out of Beijing look remarkable, indicating a momentum that the Middle Kingdom is reclaiming its great power status at a speed faster than most forecasts.... MORE

For an authoritarian state to recognize in its own councils that social confrontation and protest is on the rise is not something to quibble over, even when the statistical basis of the assertion is cloudy. This is the case in the PRC, where the figure... MORE

Unrest, instability, and state-sanctioned repression is on the upsurge in rural China. On January 19, the government announced revised figures that China had 87,000 incidents of internal unrest during the last year. This instability is rising against the background of efforts by the Hu-Wen administration... MORE

Call it the “Theory of the Three Harmonies.” Three years after assuming power, President Hu Jintao has concocted the one slogan that his publicists hope will best sum up the statecraft of the Fourth Generation leadership: he-ping, he-jie and he-xie. This “triple he [harmony]” can... MORE

One of the basic components of post-Mao China’s policy, domestic and international, is opposition to separatism. This policy reflects China’s uncompromising adherence to the maintenance of territorial integrity at all costs—primarily with regard to Taiwan, but also to Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Similarly, the... MORE

As it became evident that the World Trade Organization ministerial conference, which occurred in Hong Kong on December 13-18, was on the brink of failure, U.S. officials called on China to take a more active role to further liberalize global commerce. U.S. Trade Representative Rob... MORE