After months of frenetic diplomatic forays—which have included trips made by President Hu Jintao and other top cadres to places as far away as Africa and Latin America—Beijing’s top leaders are at year-end giving top priority to cementing ties with the Middle Kingdom’s immediate neighbors.... MORE

In a rare disclosure of the enormous hidden cost of China’s rapid economic development, the Chinese government acknowledged last week that “sudden public incidents” such as industrial accidents, social safety accidents, and natural disasters are responsible for over one million casualties and the loss of... MORE

China Brief reported on November 8 that Chinese President Hu Jintao met Kim Jong-chol, the second son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, during a state visit to Pyongyang in late October. This report generated intense speculation that Kim Jong-il had decided upon a successor.... MORE

As the poor cousin of combat arms, logistics has suffered from chronic resource shortages since the inception of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). With the PLA reorganizing their forces into brigades with more firepower and mobility, logistics needed to be updated. To enable this, the... MORE

No breakthroughs were achieved from the much-anticipated summit between Presidents George W. Bush and Hu Jintao last Sunday, raising doubts as to whether the two “strategic competitors” can put their common interests ahead of deep-seated differences. This is despite both leaders’ characterization of the hour-long... MORE

President Hu Jintao’s state visits to the UK, Germany and Spain this month demonstrate the continuing importance attached by China to its relations with Europe. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of official relations between the EU and China—a reason for some... MORE

China achieved another major milestone with the successful launch of its second manned spacecraft in less than two years on October 12, 2005, when Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) VI blasted into orbit atop a Chinese Changzheng (Long March) rocket from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center. After... MORE

Since 2000, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been paying a good deal more attention to Brunei Darussalam than in the past. Emblematic of this newfound interest in Brunei was Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to the Southeast Asian state in April 2005,... MORE

Fifty years ago the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Central Secretariat held a meeting inside the Zhongnanhai compound to embark on the PRC’s nuclear weapons program. At the time of this gathering, China was still recovering from the Korean War that ended in 1953, and faced... MORE

Hu Jintao made an official visit to North Korea on October 28, the first Chinese presidential tour to the DPRK in four years and in response to Kim Jong-Il’s visit to China in 2003. Both China and North Korea praised the summit highly. Kim accorded... MORE