Latest China Brief Articles

INDIA AND ITS TAIWAN POLICY

By Prakash Nanda Despite being the world's largest democracy, India has always neglected Taiwan, the first Chinese society to reject authoritarianism in favor of democracy. India is so sensitive to China's reaction that it has compromised both principles and pragmatism in its relations with Taiwan.... MORE

CHINA’S SEVEN-PERCENT SOLUTION, PART I

"If we didn't have China I would be suicidal," chief Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach said this month. "It's the only bright spot in the world economy." And bright spot it is: Beijing announced that its gross domestic product grew 8 percent last year. The... MORE

TAIWAN’S DEMOCRACY: NOT PROVOCATIVE

Three months ago, in November of last year, Hu Jintao was anointed leader of the People's Republic of China. Until recently, leaders of China were emperors, the last of whom abdicated in 1912. Hu Jintao, like his communist predecessors who succeeded the emperors, resembles an... MORE

TAIWAN CONSIDERS ACTIVE DEFENSE

In an effort to counter the continued build-up of China's offensive missile and air power, Taiwan is again considering developing its own "active defense"--that is, the ability to attack select PLA capabilities as part of an overall "defensive" strategy. But this time it would prefer... MORE

PARTY BOSSES SLOG IT OUT IN BEIJING

Personnel issues are set to dominate the First Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), due to convene on March 5. After having nailed down a sizeable number of senior Communist Party slots at the 16th CCP Congress last November, the Jiang Zemin (Shanghai)... MORE

XU WENLI, INTO AMERICAN EXILE

By Jonathan Mirsky On Christmas Eve the Chinese government released Xu Wenli, the founder of the country's tiny Democratic Party, into American exile. Xu has spent sixteen of the last twenty-one years behind bars. The most interesting comments on this event came from John Kamm,... MORE

HU JINTAO: PLAYING BY THE RULES

New Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief Hu Jintao is relying on two primary weapons in waging what could be a protracted struggle against the Jiang Zemin or Shanghai Faction: legalism and populism. By stressing the imperative of obeying laws and regulations, he is reminding President... MORE

KOREA IN THE VORTEX

By Robyn Lim North Korea, taking advantage of America's preoccupation with Iraq, is out to provoke a new nuclear crisis--seeking assurances that it will not be next on President Bush's hit list, and demanding to be rewarded yet again for bad behavior. The United States,... MORE

CHINA’S “TSUSHIMA” ANTICARRIER STRATEGY

By Thomas Woodrow China's navy is developing a Taiwan-scenario strategy to defeat U.S. naval forces by luring them into predetermined target areas and ambushing them with an array of anticarrier attack forces. Recent Chinese military exercises and military commentaries have illustrated in detail how Beijing... MORE

THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT

While the Chinese Communist Party pledged at its 16th Congress barely six weeks ago to justify its mandate of heaven by building a "comprehensive well-off society," it is also beefing up the country's control mechanism to squash challenges to the socialist order. Rhetoric aside, President... MORE