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

In Hanoi on September 10, 2023, US President Joe Biden and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyễn Phú Trọng upgraded their countries’ diplomatic relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” (White House, September 11). Vietnam bestows this term on the... MORE

Editor’s note: Tables at the end of the PDF version of this article detail a selection of the officials who have been investigated as part of probes into the health and financial sectors this year. On September 27, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a... MORE

The People’s Republic of China’s increasingly assertive stance on affirming its territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific is informing the evolution of a closer defense relationship between New Delhi and Manila. On September 25, the Philippine Coast Guard removed a floating barrier that China had installed... MORE

PLAN's submarine force faces autonomy issues due to historical distrust between leadership and boat commanders, impacting long-distance deployments. PLAN submarines historically employ senior officers as mission commanders for centralized control—a practice dating back to the force's early development—yet frequent and extended deployments strain senior officers,... MORE

At the end of September, the 2023 China International Automobile Exhibition opened in Tianjin. An official representing the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) delivered a speech, announcing that China's automobile exports are expected to exceed four million units this year (Kuai... MORE

Chinese President Xi Jinping (习近平) faces a dilemma. Around a dozen of his protégés have been found to be so corrupt that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and Commander-in-Chief is no longer sure of the efficacy of the PLA’s trump-card weapons (BBC Chinese,... MORE

On September 6, the United Wa State Party, the political arm of one of the most powerful ethnic resistance armies in Myanmar, handed over 1,207 Chinese online scammers for extradition back to China (Eleven Media Group, September 9; Global Times, September 9). This was the... MORE

China has made significant strides in its ongoing contest with the United States to dominate the technological vanguard, especially in the military realm. One primary indicator of these efforts is the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) vigorous pursuit of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its defense... MORE

The late summer has been an eventful period for observers of the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), where yet another round of purges of senior figures — this time, within the diplomatic and military bureaucracies — appears to be underway. Cursory inferential... MORE