Though superpower diplomacy dominated coverage of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) leaders summit in November, China’s upgrading of a free-trade agreement with Chile served to highlight the strength of an economic and political relationship that it has built with the country, and the... MORE

During his visits to Dhaka, Bangladesh and Naypyitaw, Myanmar on November 18 and 19, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi put forward a three-phase plan to resolve the Rohingya crisis. First, Wang called for a ceasefire in Myanmar’s devastated Rakhine state, which is at the center... MORE

On October 31, after a long standoff over South Korea’s deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, China and South Korea agreed to return to the “normal development track” (正常发展轨道) (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, October 31). The leaders of the two... MORE

North Korea’s steady drumbeat of missile launches and provocations kept relations with China and the United States tense for most of the year. Harvest time and preparations for the Korean People’s Armies’ winter training cycle have paused the missile launches, but heading into winter, there... MORE

On November 5, a cargo train from Kokshetau, North Kazakhstan, carrying 30 containers of wheat, arrived in the Turkish harbor city of Mersin, on the Mediterranean coast. What made this event so notable was that this was the first train from Kazakhstan to use the... MORE

Since August 25, Myanmar’s security forces have conducted what the United Nations (UN) has described as “a textbook case of ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. It has forced more than 589,000 Rohingya civilians to flee to Bangladesh, killing an estimated 3,000... MORE

China’s international rivers are becoming a focal point for contests over control of natural resources. China, in its powerful position as headwater nation, continues to actively promote hydropower development domestically and internationally. When downstream nations rely on un-dammed rivers for fisheries and irrigation, this puts... MORE

In October the Chinese Communist Party enshrined Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road Initiative” (OBOR) in its constitution. The move again demonstrates how the sweeping plan linking China and Europe via land and sea routes now is at the heart of China’s foreign policy and... MORE

With the 19th Party Congress now complete, the “new era” (新时期) under Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and President Xi Jinping has officially begun. The quinquennial Congress endorsed Xi’s ideological framework and policy agenda—a roadmap of how Xi will lead China in his second... MORE

The just-ended 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress has confirmed Xi Jinping’s status as China’s “Emperor for Life.” The 64-year-old “core leader” has filled the country’s highest-ruling councils—the Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC)—with his cronies and loyalists. No cadres from younger generations were... MORE