Original Source: Contemporary International Relations
An academic journal focusing on current issues in global politics and economics. It is published by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a top think tank under the Ministry of State Security (China’s primary foreign intelligence gathering organ) with significant influence on state and Party leadership thinking about foreign policy.
A researcher from the China Institute of International Studies analyzes the Biden administration’s diplomacy with African countries in the food and agriculture space. He argues that U.S. aid and new initiatives designed to improve Africa’s food security are motivated by a broader strategy of maintaining American dominance in the region, securing future markets for U.S. agricultural products and secure sources of critical minerals, and curbing China’s growing influence on the continent.
A leading Middle East scholar at a Ministry of State Security-affiliated think tank explores scenarios for U.S.-China competition in the region. He argues that regional frictions between the two powers have remained relatively limited to date, in part due to diversified forms of engagement. Detailing debates on Middle East strategy in Washington and Beijing, however, he warns that relations may become more fractious going forward.
This piece from the U.S. studies program at Ministry of State Security-linked think tank China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations argues that the Ukraine war heralds the end of the post-Cold War order. The article argues the United States has been the biggest beneficiary of the war so far, leveraging the crisis to strengthen its alliance network and fight a proxy war with Russia. The authors of the report warn countries in Asia to remain vigilant to what they describe as U.S. efforts to preserve and expand its hegemony in ways that might destabilize the region.
In this 2016 analysis, Zhang Wenzong, an expert at a state security-backed think tank, argues that Beijing must bolster its ability to withstand and counter U.S. deterrence strategy by strengthening its own economic and military resilience, overseas strategic partnerships, and domestic stability.
In an academic journal published by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a top think tank under the Ministry of State Security, scholars from Beijing Foreign Studies University analyze evolving debate on China in Germany, half a year into the federal German “traffic light” coalition. They argue that Germany sees China as both an economic competitor that “will surpass it” and a “world economic and political superpower” on which it is dependent economically. As a result of what they term this “extremely contradictory” assessment of China, there are still “some positive elements that should receive more attention” from Chinese policymakers seeking to further develop a practical, cooperative China-Germany relationship. The authors conclude by arguing that China should leverage “the internal rifts among the Western allies [that]…will be difficult to heal” to its advantage in creating a “new space for great power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” and an “international environment conducive to China.”
How is Beijing assessing the effectiveness of U.S. deterrence approaches vis-a-vis Taiwan? Writing in one of China’s leading IR journals, Renmin University’s Zuo Xiying argues that while the U.S. “failed to deter Russia from taking military action,” its actions since the invasion to support Ukraine and punish Moscow have “produced a powerful deterrent effect against China with regard to the Taiwan issue.”