On September 11th, Wang Huning, a Politburo standing committee member and the CCP's leading ideologist, was appointed as the chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification (CCPPNR). The appointment of Wang has given spectators a good opportunity to poke into the organizational structure of the CCP’s central subdivisions and personal backgrounds of a Politburo member who is one of the most powerful politicians in China.

On February 2nd, 2023, just two days before the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, the Republic of the Philippines and the United States announced the increase in American military presence in the country amid rising tensions in the South China Sea. This event marks yet another escalation in an area that has seen two Taiwan Straits Crises, overlapping territorial claims, and many naval skirmishes

From a trade war to human rights crisis, the deterioration of the U.S.-China relations have accelerated in recent years. In the latest of a series of geopolitical crises, a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon was detected in U.S. airspace on the 2 February, just 48 hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to travel to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Throughout the development of the global economy, supply and demand of goods can often be characterized as countervailing. Prices are often determined by the proportion between production and consumption rather than the numerical difference between the two forces. This framing can be useful when determining the overall costs to producers and consumers alike when focusing on key commodities like petroleum. China’s covid era has demonstrated the relationship between supply and demand in the context of international and domestic policy. China’s original lockdown in 2020 primarily demonstrated the role of consumption, whereas the 2022 COVID emergence crisis highlighted the potential role of production in the global petroleum market.

On the second leg of a tour of Africa aimed at promoting American regional investment, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized the importance of addressing Zambia’s heavy debt burden with China. Zambia became Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign nation to default when it failed to make a $42.5 million bond payment in November 2020. Negotiations over how to deal with the debt load have been ongoing.

The world’s most populous country has begun to shrink: China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a decline in its population of nearly one million people in 2o22. This is the first year where China's birth rate was at a net negative since the Great Leap Forward: an economic experiment that resulted in widespread famine in the 1960s. There are three factors which contribute to China’s declining populations: lasting consequences of the one-child policy, changing attitudes towards marriage and childbirth, and the expenses associated with raising children.

For the past three decades, the world has seen the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a youthful economic juggernaut on a one-way trip to surpass the United States as the world’s predominant economic force. However, this January the PRC has reported that in 2022 the country’s economy had only grown by 3% , while its population had shrunk by approximately 850,000 people, marking China’s first population drop since the Great Famine of Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward.

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country situated between two global superpowers, bordering China to the north and Russia to the south. Mongolia- a country with a nomadic culture- is the next nation to join the digital revolution. In 2020, the Mongolian government laid out its five-year plan to build a “Digital Nation”.

The recent 20th National People’s Congress suggested the importance of the state’s role in transitioning the country towards a green economy. The congress highlighted its plans to bolster its financing, resources, research, and conservation in the green energy sector. China currently pays close attention to the green energy sector in the new energy policy since it relates to China’s national security.

This October, the Chinese Communist Party held its 20th National Congress which further cemented President Xi Jinping’s (习近平) control over China’s economy, society, and military. President Xi is fully aware of the looming conflicts brewing along the Sino-Indian border and within the East and South China Seas and their destabilizing potential. To address these threats to Chinese security interests, he seeks to modernize, expand, and affirm the allegiance of the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) and ensure that China is capable of fighting and winning regional wars. It is important for international observers and leaders to note the implications of President Xi’s consolidation of power over the Chinese military and its effect on the PLA’s policies, strategies, and capabilities. We may soon enter a dangerous and militarized period of great power competition and the PLA will continue to be a crucial factor.

In the economic section of the 20th Party Congress Report, Chinese President Xi Jinping repeatedly mentioned the “Dual Circulation Model.” Since its initial proposal in May 2020, this economic development model has been openly advertised by Xi both domestically and internationally, including at the 3rd China International Import Expo, which took place in November 2020 in Shanghai. What is the Dual Circulation, and what exact goals is it set to achieve?

Our Fellow, Howen Yu has had the opportunity to interview his own father–a Beijing based volunteer worker acutely impacted by the zero-covid policy during his stay in Tibet. The OICP have compiled a series of personal accounts from him during the 3-month long lockdown. Through these accounts, we attempt to illustrate the impacts of China’s strict covid restrictions towards normal civilians.

Nearly three years into the pandemic, China is sticking with strict COVID-19 containment policies that have led to a string of lockdowns around the nation, economic damage, and widespread frustration among Chinese citizens. As reported by researchers at Oxford University who developed the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) to measure the strictness of government policies, China currently has the strictest containment measures. The Chinese government has yet to announce when or how it will ease its restrictions; how will China exit its zero-Covid policy?

At 4,909 km in length, the Mekong is Asia’s third longest river. It sustains over 70 million people across six countries with active fisheries, farming, industrial production and hydropower. However, the river’s long-term sustainability has been continuously threatened by expansive energy projects in the region. Despite the establishment of various cooperation mechanisms, these mechanisms either are too weak to impact dispute conflicts or unilaterally implement Chinese values. As each party desires to retain some forms of policy advantages over the other, the ever-increasing environmental challenges should be properly addressed in a cooperative manner.

Learn all about AUKUS, the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and its effect on Indo-Pacific security.

Every October 10th, Taiwan celebrates Taiwan National Day, commemorating the anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising in China that brought an end to Qing rule. This uprising led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC), whose government would eventually come to govern the island of Taiwan. During the festivities, millions of people participate in celebrations that include music, food, and fireworks.

On October 15th, BYD announced in their official news release that its Atto 3 EV scored 5 out of 5 stars in the EURO NCAP safety rating, achieving 91% in adult and 89% for children occupant protection; Just 11 days earlier on Oct 4th, BYD also partnered up with the German premium rental giant SIXT to become its long-term “strategic partner” their deal includes initial deliveries to arrive by the end of 2022, promise to deliver 100,000 vehicles in the next six years, then expanding BYD availabilities over 2100 SIXT branches from 100 countries. What is BYD, what cars do they make, and how are they doing so successfully in Europe?

Earlier this year in May, a series of anonymous phishing emails discovered within China’s NorthWest Polytechnical university (NWPU) communication system triggered an all-out investigation against NSA-led cyber operations inside China. By September 5th, initial reports from the National Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) have stated that a total of 140 Gigabytes of “high-valued data” in China were retrieved by the NSA within the past across military, civil, technology and different government sectors. What is the NWPU and why is the NSA interested in it?

Read about the rivalry of the United States and China in space, why their cooperation has been limited, and if that can change.

Read about the rise of the Chinese space program and American efforts to match China’s breakneck rate of progression.