Editor’s Note: This article as well as a subsequent article on the impact of System of Systems of Operations on Chinese military modernization are based upon Mr. McCauley’s presentation at Jamestown’s Third Annual China Defense and Security Conference held on February 28, 2013 in Washington,... MORE

Bound up in nearly every discussion about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is the question of what role China could, should, and would play. It has been widely written that Beijing’s priority is to maintain a stable Korean Peninsula (albeit one that remains divided) and... MORE

The annual National People’s Congress (NPC) meeting often can sound like a tedious recitation of familiar phraseology on Chinese priorities and, certainly, the words on modernizing the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) seem tired. On March 5, now-former-Premier Wen Jiabao delivered his final government work report... MORE

In advance of new Chinese President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to Moscow, a major “deliverable” has finally emerged. On February 27, Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) announced their agreement to conclude negotiations on the long-stalled Russo-Chinese natural gas deal by year’s end.... MORE

On February 25, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich traveled to China to attend a first meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on energy cooperation. The commission was formed in December 2012 to replace the bilateral Russia-China energy dialogue. Dvorkovich held talks with his Chinese... MORE

In October 2012, most Western analysts of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were surprised when the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Military Commission (CMC) appointed General Tian Xiusi—who had served since 1968 as an Army enlisted member and political officer—as the PLA Air Force (PLAAF)... MORE

This article briefly discusses the history of the political commissars (PCs, zhengwei) for the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy (PLAN) and Air Force (PLAAF) since the services were established in 1949, especially during the tumultuous period the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. The article... MORE

In January, reports surfaced that Laos would borrow money from China to finance a $7 billion, 260-mile rail project connecting the Lao capital of Vientiane to the Chinese border (Ming Pao [Hong Kong], January 15;Global Times, January 10; RFA, December 2, 2012). The project, by... MORE

China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is no longer merely an aspiration. Beijing has successfully developed, partially tested and deployed in small numbers the world’s first weapons system capable of targeting the last relatively uncontested U.S. airfield in the Asia-Pacific from long-range, land-based mobile launchers.... MORE

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plans to conduct 40 military exercises this year in order to improve its readiness as well as its ability to fight and win wars, according to the Training Department of the PLA’s General Staff Department (PLA Daily, February 28; Xinhua,... MORE