Mar 02,2021 Special Forum

Uninterrupted Rise: China’s Global Strategy According to Xi Jinping Thought

To many in the Chinese leadership the global financial crisis revealed that advanced Western capitalist democracies are “paper-tigers.” This assessment led to growing voices questioning if Deng Xiaoping’s “hide and bide” dictum for foreign policy was still appropriate. Prior to Xi Jinping coming to power in late 2012 the Chinese leadership had no consensus on […]

Steve Tsang , Olivia Cheung

Comprehensive national strength , Joe Biden , United Front , US-China rivalry , Wolf Warrior Diplomacy , Xi Jinping , Xi Jinping Thought

Jul 02,2020 Open Forum

Forecasting Synergies in Chinese and Russia Digital Influence Operations

Amid the global pandemic that has wreaked havoc on countries around the world, China and Russia’s digital influence campaigns are converging. Several accounts of China’s information operations have noted the incorporation of Russian tactics. Yet the full significance of this development cannot be understood without appreciating the broader alignment between Russia and China. In other […]

Kristine Lee , Kendall-Taylor Andrea

color revolutions , COVID-19 , discourse power , Hong Kong , influence operation , information warfare , United Front

Jun 06,2020 Special Forum

Soft Power and Sharp Power: The View from Australia

Australians of late have been shocked by the unravelling of US soft power globally and China’s offensive use of sharp power targeting their country. At issue is the prospect of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific upheld by the norms and institutions of a liberal rules-based order. This matters because, while Australia is partly dependent on […]

John Fitzgerald

COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Sharp power , soft power , the Quad , United Front

May 14,2019 Special Forum

Winning the ideological competition with China

The 2017 US National Security Strategy describes a vision of the international arena defined by a return of great power competition, with China as the leading rival of the United States seeking to challenge the liberal international order.1  As Robert Kagan recently argued, authoritarianism has reemerged as “a profound ideological, as well as strategic, challenge.”2  […]

Scott W. Harold

"Belt and Road" Initiative , America First , China Dream , Confucius Institutes , Donald Trump , free and open Indo-Pacific , Liberal international order , United Front , Xi Jinping

Dec 20,2018 Special Forum

Analyzing the Relationship between Identity and Democratization in Taiwan and Hong Kong in the Shadow of China

After 160 years of non-democratic colonial rule by the British, Hong Kong became part of China in 1997 under a mini-constitution, the Basic Law, that guaranteed a number of democratic civic values and pledged eventual universal suffrage for both the executive and the legislature. Since the handover, there have been protest movements demanding fulfillment of […]

Syaru Shirley Lin

"Belt and Road" Initiative , China Dream , One China policy , One Country Two Systems , United Front

Apr 24,2018 Special Forum

Introduction

This issue’s Special Forum consists of four articles on individual cases—New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Korea. This introduction covers the single-country articles, comparing the four cases, while it also looks broadly at the nature of such interference, reaching beyond Chinese intrusive activities to focus on them as examples of “sharp power,” a contrast to […]

Gilbert Rozman

hard power , Sharp power , Smart power , soft power , United Front , Xi Jinping

Apr 24,2018 Special Forum

New Zealand

In March 2017, during the visit of Premier Li Keqiang to New Zealand, a senior Chinese diplomat favorably compared New Zealand-China relations to the level of closeness China had with Albania in the early 1960s. It was a startling and telling analogy, one which disconcerted New Zealand diplomats. In the Cold War years, Albania was […]

Anne-Marie Brady

BRI , Communist Party of New Zealand , CPC , United Front , Yang Jian

Apr 24,2018 Special Forum

Australia

The primary purposes of China’s influence and interference operations in Australia are to pressure business and government to accede to China’s policy demands in the region, to weaken Australia’s historical alliance commitments, and to secure science and technology assistance in areas of strategic priority to China. These efforts are well documented.1 A parallel purpose, not […]

John Fitzgerald

ABC , Bob Carr , CPC , Sam Dastyari , United Front

Apr 24,2018 Special Forum

Canada

Canada’s economic and strategic interdependence with the United States makes Canada an important priority for the People’s Republic of China in realizing its geopolitical goals. There is increasing concern by Canadian intelligence agencies that Canadian politicians, civil servants, and policy advisers are subject to Chinese political influence. There is also significant evidence that Chinese diaspora […]

Charles Burton

Confucius Institutes , CPC , CSIS Act , Michael Chan , United Front