Apr 01, 2015

After years of fruitless efforts to prevent Iran from conducting any uranium enrichment, U.S. negotiators today join with their Chinese counterparts in seeking to contain, rather than eliminate, Iran’s nuclear weapons potential. However, while Chinese policy makers do not want Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, they oppose the use of military force or severe sanctions to prevent it. Richard Weitz highlights a China – U.S. competition for economic advantage in Iran, a dynamic that may define future talks.

Feb 16, 2015

Both the responses the next U.S. Defense Secretary gave to the Senate Armed Services Committee and the latest U.S. National Security Strategy adopt a benign tone regarding China. These documents generally affirm a desire to improve overall relations and continue China-U.S. defense exchanges even while seeking greater Chinese military transparency and the peaceful resolution of China’s maritime claims in the Pacific.

Jan 27, 2015

By not emphasizing security differences with Beijing, President Barack Obama’s State-of-the-Union address made evident his general satisfaction with the success of his China policies.

Jan 06, 2015

Chinese experts underestimate the strong drivers underpinning the U.S. pivot to Asia, which will likely continue despite the Democratic losses in the recent congressional elections and the retirement of the U.S. Defense Secretary. Indeed, President Obama’s Asian policies enjoy bipartisan support and remain a White House priority despite economic and other challenges.

Nov 17, 2014

Although Xi and Abe agreed to deemphasize their conflict over the East China Sea, past efforts in this direction have not proved successful for long. Last month’s release of the interim report on Japanese-U.S. progress in revising their defense guidelines has become the latest object of Chinese concern.

Oct 24, 2014

China’s small naval exercise with Iran last month was unremarkable in its military importance but helps illustrate the larger strategic calculations facing Beijing as China tries to manage its trilateral relationship with Tehran and Washington.

Sep 25, 2014

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has organized a number of “anti-terrorist exercises” that do have an anti-terrorism purpose and aim to fight the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism by strengthening the militaries’ ability to coordinate counter-terrorism operations. Nonetheless, in addition to their declared goal of fighting regional terrorism, these drills aim to support the SCO agenda of negating U.S. global primacy, countering U.S. missile defense programs, and weakening U.S. security alliances.

Aug 27, 2014

China has provided modest aid to Afghanistan, but its economic and security contributions remain much less than those provide by Western countries, despite China’s geographic and other links to Afghanistan.

Aug 04, 2014

The most recent BRICS summit was noteworthy for generating the first concrete collective initiatives in the group’s history. Whereas the BRICS past meetings and had yielded mostly joint declarations, the July 15 summit in Brazil saw them launch two high-profile financial initiatives. Perhaps even more important, they seem prepared to undertake other collective projects in the energy and nonproliferation realms.

Jul 15, 2014

Relations between China and South Korea continue to improve. Their two governments have developed a strong economic partnership and managed their security differences over North Korea and other issues well. Surveys of South Korean public opinion show a remarkable rise in popular assessments of China and its policies. Nevertheless, South Korea remains a reliable U.S. ally and security partner and Beijing’s options regarding Seoul are seriously constrained as long as China remains committed to sustaining North Korea as a buffer state.