Media Type: Article
Zhang Jie, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzes growing coordination among the United States, Japan, and the Philippines. Zhang frames this trilateral coordination as evidence that Washington is aiming to expand its economic and security influence in the region. In response, Zhang recommends Beijing strengthen diplomatic and economic engagement with its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific, focusing in particular on small and medium-sized states.
Li Min, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, provides an overview of Russia’s shifting relations with North and South Korea, pointing to increasingly close ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. Conversely, Li suggests, Russia’s previously strong relations with South Korea have deteriorated since its invasion of Ukraine and Seoul’s support for Kyiv. Despite these trends, in Li’s analysis it is unlikely that Russia will completely abandon its relationship with South Korea, just as its burgeoning trade partnership with North Korea has its limits.
In this January 2024 interview, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong outlines China’s strategy for “new industrialization.” Jin emphasizes the importance of upgrading advanced manufacturing through integration of cutting-edge technologies, consolidating China’s leadership in emerging strategic sectors in which it has an advantage, and supporting small firms that might be benefited by application of AI and other technologies in their production methods.
This lengthy piece outlines the underlying logic behind China’s new industrial upgrading policy, dubbed “new industrialization.” Jin Zhuanglong, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, lays out what he sees as key accomplishments and challenges for China’s industrial system going forward. Jin details steps Beijing will undertake to advance the manufacturing sector, emphasizing the need to better integrate and synergize technology innovation, digitalization, and industrial upgrading.
Guo Kai, the executive president of CF40, a think tank focusing on finance and economic issues, argues that the problem of overcapacity is being used in the U.S. to drive election politics, rather than being viewed purely as an economic concern. Domestically, he attributes overcapacity as a negative externality to China’s rapid manufacturing growth, and makes several policy recommendations to address the issue.
The head of China’s Ministry of State Security, Chen Yixin, reflects on efforts to implement the “Overall National Security Outlook” ten years after Chinese leader Xi Jinping first introduced the concept in 2014. Chen highlights the 2020 National Security Law in Hong Kong, more formalized national security education, and the build out of a national security legal and regulatory architecture as key accomplishments over the past decade. Looking ahead, Chen emphasizes the need to further advance China’s national security through a variety of mechanisms, including greater technological self-reliance, improved counter-sanctions mechanisms, and more assertive efforts to advance China’s security principles on the international stage.
In this transcript of a keynote speech given by Ding Xiaoxing, the director of the Institute of Eurasian Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), he outlines the major trends and features of the war in Ukraine two years on. He highlights the emergence of commercial technology on the battlefield and the high human and financial costs of the war, and argues that continued U.S. aid to Ukraine will be a decisive variable impacting the war’s future dynamics.
Feng Yujun, a leading scholar of China-Russia relations, outlines Russia’s evolving geopolitical posture and outlook two years into its war in Ukraine. Feng explores how Russia is adapting diplomatically and economically to war-induced isolation from West, including by expanding its relations with the Global South. Moscow’s relations with Beijing remain strong, Feng argues, although framings of the partnership as “limitless” have ceded from official Chinese discourse.
In this interview, Xu Poling, a Russia expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, reflects on lessons learned from recent research trips to the country. He seeks to explain Russia’s relative resilience in the face of sanctions, concluding several factors are at work – the quick imposition of strict outbound capital controls, forced sales of foreign currency to increase central bank holdings, insistence on selling gas to Europe in rubles, and de-dollarization efforts since 2014.
This article was written during the consultation period for new national security legislation through Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law. Shao Shanbo, previous head of the former Hong Kong Central Policy Unit (a government think tank advising the Chief Executive that was revamped under a new name in 2018), addresses criticism voiced within Hong Kong and by external observers over the bill’s potential breadth. Prominently, he argues that terms such as “incitement” are not vague because they have been clarified by legal precedents within the city’s common law system.