Nov 08,2018 National Commentaries

A View from China

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s Beijing tour in October of 2018 went well. It is not just the first time a Japanese prime minister has returned to Beijing in 8 years. The significance is that after years of lingering tensions over the Diaoyu/Senkaku territorial fracture, the two sides are ultimately and realistically seeking a new phase […]

Zhu Feng*

BRI , China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship , Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands , free and open Indo-Pacific , RCEP , TPP

Oct 18,2018 Open Forum

Russia’s Revived Debate on China: Historical Perspective and Implicit Significance

In the fall of 2018, the case is again being made that Russia is likely to be amenable to distance itself from China despite the recent tightening of their bilateral relationship. Here, I first assess the strengths and weaknesses of that case, while pointing to its neglect of how recent Russian coverage of China has […]

Gilbert Rozman

BRI , BRICS , China Dream , Cold War , EEU , SCO , Silk Road , Yellow Peril

Oct 16,2018 Open Forum

The Balance between Sinophobia and Discourse on Cooperation: Expert Opinion on China in Russia and Kazakhstan

The Beijing-Moscow-Astana triangle is the key to the processes of integration and economic cooperation in “Central Eurasia”—a recent but salient geopolitical construct, the appearance of which was brought to light by the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Russian concept of “Greater Eurasia.”1 Relations of the three sides of this triangle result from […]

Ivan Zuenko

BRI , community of common destiny , EEU , Nurly Zhol , SCO , Sinophobia , SREB , Valdai Club

Oct 11,2018 Open Forum

As China and Russia Draw Closer, Mongolia Feels the Squeeze

In September 2018 Russia carried out the largest military exercise since the height of the Cold War.1 Vostok-2018, held in Siberia, drew considerable attention in the Western media, not just because of the sheer scale of the event (declared as involving 300,000 troops and thousands of tanks and airplanes) but also because China sent an […]

Sergey Radchenko

BRI , EEF , EEU , Khaltmaa “Genco” Battulga , SCO , third neighbor policy , Vladmir Putin , Xi Jinping

Oct 08,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2018)

Setting aside the rush of publications on China and North Korea—from Abe’s October visit to China to Japan’s response to plans for a new Trump-Kim summit—this report covers Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and India. The time span is the summer of 2018. Late in this period, Abe saw Putin surprise him with an […]

Editorial Staff

AIIB , ARF , BRI , BRICS , comfort women , EEF , free and open Indo-Pacific , Sharp power , the Quad , US-China trade war

Oct 01,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (September 2018)

More than bilateral relations, the big picture interested Russian writers as the summer drew to a close. The prevalent assumption was that the West is in rapid decline and a new world order of some kind is just over the horizon. The positive forces for that include Putin’s assertive foreign policy, China’s rise and close […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

BRI , BRICS , EEF , Khasan-Rajin railway , Power of Siberia-2 , Russian Far East , Southern Kuriles

Sep 27,2018 Open Forum

Washington Insights Vol. 6, No. 5

The start of the fall brought further confirmation that Trump is driving the agenda, whether by launching trade wars, disheartening allies, or refusing to attend the annual summit in East Asia. DC presentations and discussions proceeded against this unprecedented turmoil. At times, the Trump effect stayed well in the background as currents in the region […]

Editorial Staff

BRI , Eastern Economic Forum , JSOMIA , New Northern Policy , Quad , SCO , Silk Road

Sep 04,2018 Open Forum

Can China Seduce Japan? 14 Reasons for Its Overtures in 2018

As Sino-US relations have deteriorated in 2018, Beijing has looked elsewhere in Asia for closer ties: to the Korean Peninsula, where Kim Jong-un was desperate to improve relations in order to pursue diplomacy with Donald Trump with his “back covered” and Moon Jae-in was awaiting pressure from Trump after enticing him into diplomacy with Kim […]

Gilbert Rozman

BRI , Confucius Institutes , South China Sea , trade war , US-Japan alliance

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

International Law in US-China Relations: Trade Wars and Maritime Rights in the Era of Xi and Trump

In an increasingly fraught US-China relationship, issues of international law have become important in their own right and illustrative of broader patterns. A pair of particularly salient and illuminating arenas are trade (and related economic matters) and maritime rights (including related security issues, especially in the South China Sea). In each of these fields, the […]

Jacques deLisle

BRI , CPTPP , Made in China 2025 , RCEP , South China Sea , TPP , UNCLOS , WTO

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

A Prognosis of the Current Sino-American Malaise

The current relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States has been described by reputable China scholars as the worst it has been since normalization in 1979.1 How bad can it get?  The easy answer to that question is, of course, no one can know the future. That granted, we focus […]

Lowell Dittmer

BRI , Socialism with Chinese Characteristics , South China Sea , UNCLOS , Xi Jinping Thought