June 26,2020 Open Forum

Three Spikes and You Are Out? China-DPRK Relations after the Cold War and the US

Exchanges of visits between Chinese and DPRK leaders and high-level delegations have been relatively rare since the end of the Cold War. However, meetings between leaders saw three abnormal peaks in 1999-2001, 2010-2012, and 2018-2019. If after the Cold War the bilateral relationship cooled, room was left for China’s leaders to respond to changes in […]

Jiang Tianjiao
China-DPRK relations , China-US relations , COVID-19 , Denuclearization , Hanoi summit , Six-Party Talks
May 19,2020 Open Forum

The Launch of an Ideological Cold War in 2020: The US Perspective

Today’s US response to China that suggests a cold war mentality: first, blaming problems in the Sino-US relationship, China more generally, and the pandemic’s origin and response on the inherent nature of China’s communist system; second, referencing a different history or civilizational foundation, connected to such forces as the May Fourth Movement and Taiwan’s Chinese […]

Gilbert Rozman
Cold War , COVID-19 , Donald Trump , Joe Biden , Public diplomacy , Xi Jinping
May 15,2020 Open Forum

China’s “Wolf Warrior” Diplomacy in the COVID-19 Crisis

COVID-19, a black swan event, altered the planned trajectory of China’s domestic politics and its engagement with the rest of the world. The public health crisis from COVID-19 has strained every country’s resources and every government’s credibility. Especially for an authoritarian state such as China, which has drawn its legitimacy primarily from its performance, COVID-19 […]

Yun Sun
Boxer Protocol , China International Development Cooperation Agency , China Model , COVID-19 , Public diplomacy , World Health Organization
May 09,2020 Open Forum

Kim Jong-un’s Recent Absence: A Viewpoint from North Korean Media Analysis

“CONFIDENTIAL AND URGENT STOP LORD COPPER HIMSELF GRAVELY DISSATISFIED STOP LORD COPPER PERSONALLY REQUIRES VICTORIES STOP ON RECEIPT OF THIS CABLE VICTORY STOP CONTINUE CABLING VICTORIES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE STOP… “They don’t seem very pleased with me in London. They seem to want more news.”1 The British writer Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 novel, Scoop, caricatures foreign […]

Rachel Minyoung Lee
Kim Il-sung , Kim Jong-il , Kim Jong-un , Kim Yo-jong , media analysis
May 09,2020 Open Forum

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Russo-Chinese Border

The pandemic has already changed the course of world history, and its future consequences, such as how and when it finishes, remain unknown to us amidst a dynamic situation. However, it is possible and necessary to draw some conclusions based on what is now known on how the situation is unfolding in concrete arenas of […]

Ivan Zuenko
China-Russia relations , COVID-19 , Eurasian Economic Union , New Silk Road , turn to the East
May 04,2020 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 8, No. 2

Unlike previous Washington Insights based on attendance at panels and person-to-person contacts, this one draws from a mixture of Zoom meetings and articles from Washington-based think tanks. Extracting alternative scenarios from these exchanges, we do not report on specific sources except for a small number of citations. The objective is to capture the overall tenor […]

Editorial Staff
America First , Cold War , COVID-19 , Donald Trump , hegemony , Sinocentrism , Xi Jinping