Xi Jinping
The significant weekend visit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un started with a Tweet last Thursday as President Trump was getting ready to depart the G20 conference in Osaka, Japan. “After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I ...
Bottom Line Up Front: On June 4, 1989 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) staged a violent crackdown on peaceful protesters who gathered at Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms. Thirty years after the event, China has arguably grown more autocratic than it was in 1989 under the leadership of ...
Bottom Line Up Front On January 28, intelligence officials warned of a Sino-Russian entente, with China and Russia more closely aligned than at any point in decades. A strengthened Moscow-Beijing axis poses serious security challenges to the West in general and to the United States in particular. The Sino-Russian ...
Bottom Line Up Front Earlier this month, China released footage from a military exercise where the ‘Guam killer’ DF-26 ballistic missile was tested. In the 21stCentury, China has increasingly focused resources on modernizing its military to match its economic power. Chinese military modernization presents the most significant challenge to ...
Bottom Line Up Front On December 1, President Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Argentina. The meeting comes at a crucial time for the Sino-U.S. relationship, which has been continuously deteriorating throughout the Trump presidency. Both Xi and Trump are to ...
Despite indications that China’s economy is likely to experience a moderate slowdown, the world’s second largest economy – and largest market by headcount – continues to expand the depth of its interactions with the world. From the One Belt, One Road project to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Asian ...
Amb. Joseph DeTrani, Cipher Brief expert and former Special Envoy for the Six Party Talks with North Korea, shared his thoughts on the surprise trip by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit the Chinese premier, adapted for print below. The March 26-27 visit of North Korean leader Kim ...
Bottom Line: With the stated national goal of achieving ‘great power status,’ China’s military modernization efforts have contributed to rising tension in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as between China and the United States. China’s growing ability to project military force – buttressed by the opening of its first overseas ...
For this last week of 2017, we asked our experts to predict what they see for the year ahead. CIA veteran and Asia hand Amb. Joseph DeTrani spoke about what Beijing could do to check the rising threat from North Korea, including implementing U.N. sanctions that Pyongyang has called an ...
U.S. President Donald Trump responded to a flamboyant welcome by Chinese President Xi Jinping with effusive praise, as the two leaders presented a united front in the face of a belligerent North Korea. However, inconsistent statements on trade and other key issues in the relationship reflect a seemingly incoherent U.S. ...
On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping revealed the six other members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo (PBSC) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The world had waited to see how the selected men might offer insight into Xi’s priorities for China – and for his own rule. Last ...
China's 19th Party Congress begins Wednesday in Beijing. The Congress occurs every five years, and is an opportunity to understand the Chinese leadership's vision for the direction of the country. 2017's Congress is slated to be Xi Jinping's show, as he solidifies his power and appoints his political allies to the ...
China, in all probability, will be even more belligerent after its historic 19th Communist Party Congress, which starts today, Wednesday, in Beijing. At the Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping, China’s strongman, is expected to consolidate power atop the world’s largest ruling party. Nonetheless, rumors persist that brutal infighting continues in ...
All eyes are on Beijing Wednesday as the 19th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) begins. Carefully choreographed by the most central players in Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Communist Party’s headquarters just off Tiananmen Square, the Congress meets every five years to select key leadership throughout the party. This ...
In 2000, Xi Jinping, the then relatively unknown (outside of China) Governor of Fujian, gave a rare interview to a Chinese newspaper. In this interview, Xi spoke of his philosophy of good governance, his traumatic childhood experiences, his closeness to the people, and his legacy as a son of Xi ...
Editor’s Note: Over the coming days, The Cipher Brief presents some of our most incisive coverage on key issues of 2016 and a look ahead at what is yet to come in 2017. The oppressive smog that overtook China in late December covered 3.9 million square miles, put 24 cities ...
Compared to China, ISIS amounts to a nasty swarm of gnats. Compared to China, Russia comes across as a cranky old man (with a shotgun). However, neither ISIS, nor Putin’s Russia, nor any other world power can rival or possibly displace the U.S. as the major power in the world: ...
Since coming to power in 2012, China's Xi Jinping has reforged the Chinese Communist Party with his anti-corruption campaign and his accumulation of titles. In a post-Mao system designed to distribute power, Xi's reforms risk tying China's success too closely to his own. Gordon Chang's article, written for The Cipher ...
With the incoming Trump presidency, much ink has been spilled regarding the “end” of President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia. The pivot was centered on the military prong of moving 60 percent of U.S. naval assets to the Asia Pacific along with the economic prong of the Trans Pacific Partnership ...
For roughly 30 years, China’s “economic miracle” has catapulted the once-impoverished country from relative backwater to global economic juggernaut. Driven by export-led growth and massive state investments in manufacturing and infrastructure, China had enjoyed a period of scorching GDP growth at an average of 10 percent a year. However, that ...
Since the liberalizing economic reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, the Chinese economy has grown at an average annual rate of nearly 10 percent. However, as the returns of rapid industrialization and urbanization begin to diminish, this growth has begun to slow. At the same time, massive state-driven investment ...
President-elect Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping have more in common than they currently realize. Both want to make their countries “great again,” and both need to demonstrate that they can create jobs for the large segments of their population that have felt left behind by globalization. President Xi’s challenge ...
In recent months, the People’s Republic of China has successfully faced and largely overcome a significant crisis in its relationships with Latin America, even while the United States, as it approaches the upcoming presidential election, plunges into a new phase of uncertainty in its own relationship with the continent. Although ...
U.S. – China relations have deteriorated appreciably over the past few years. The prospect for improved relations are bleak, with a strong likelihood that bilateral relations will continue to worsen. Although there’s no simple answer, it’s apparent that more must be done to restore trust in this important bilateral relationship. ...
As the G20 summit in China came to a close, something far more worrisome than Air Force One’s stairway gaff overshadowed the summit. The Philippines announced that eleven Chinese dredging vessels and barges had been observed in the waters off of Scarborough Shoal. This, Manila suggested, is an indication China ...
In Asia, there is now a “whiff of 1914,” a reference by Australian University Professor Hugh White to the lead up to World War One. The South China Sea, as the International Crisis Group has noted, is “the cockpit of geopolitics in East Asia.” Scholar Robert Kaplan even called it ...
Nationalist fervor, a more aggressive military posture, and curbs on free speech in China today are the hallmarks of one man: President Xi Jinping. He came to power in 2012 with the mandate to pursue a prosperous society and national renewal, and he has made this “Chinese Dream” the end ...
As 2016 draws to a close, The Cipher Brief revisits its feature on the architect of China’s most recent and expansive policies, Xi Jinping. One of the few remaining legacies of Hua Guofeng, the Chinese leader who briefly held power following the death of Mao Zedong and the demise of ...
Since 2012, President Xi Jinping has mounted an aggressive anti-corruption campaign against the so-called “tigers and flies,” corrupt officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as well as local bureaucrats and businessmen throughout the country. Over 1500 officials have been prosecuted for corruption so far, including ...
The Chinese Communist Party under President Xi Jinping is viewed more favorably by China’s youth than any previous regime in the country’s recent history. Yet there is no guarantee that Beijing will be able to meet their increasingly material expectations. If it cannot continue to grow economic opportunities, the Party ...
If Xi Jinping is the father and China’s people are his children, then Xi’s parenting style is definitely based on discipline rather than trust. The question is, will tightening his grip on society through restrictions of media, entertainment and free speech make China’s youth respect their father figure, or resent ...
Despite the fact that relatives of eight of China’s most senior officials were implicated in the Panama Papers released last week, the Chinese public knows little about it. Citizens of other affected countries have been calling for investigations, even leading to the resignation of named leaders, like Icelandic Prime Minister ...
As President Barack Obama was meeting with leaders from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) this week, U.S. satellite imagery confirmed China has deployed surface-to-air missiles on an island in the Paracel chain in the South China Sea. The Paracel island chain is claimed by the People’s Republic ...
On November 26, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced sweeping structural reforms to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The announcement finally made good on Xi’s promises of military reform beginning with the creation of a military reform leading small group and the work report of the Third Plenum in November 2013. ...
On Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Iran, the last stop on a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, which included visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well. There, Xi upgraded the two countries’ relations to a strategic partnership and signed an agreement to increase bilateral trade by ...
President Xi Jinxing’s visit to the Middle East last week appeared to be business as usual. Short and relatively low-key, his studious avoidance of controversy was in keeping with China’s longstanding approach to the region: focus on energy and economics, and keep your head down on security and political matters. ...
Chinese President Xi Jinping began 2016 with a tour through the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Egypt in hopes of strengthening ties and increasing Chinese influence in the region. The trip was part of the “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative, a strategy proposed by Xi in 2013 ...
In 2012, China’s President Xi Jinping announced the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative (OBOR) when visiting Indonesia and Kazakhstan. OBOR has since dominated discourse among China’s media and foreign policy analysts. However, the rest of the world is overlooking the initiative’s groundbreaking significance, which essentially amounts to a new Chinese ...
For the first time in Taiwan’s history, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) controls both the Presidency and the Parliament, and that development has all eyes focused on China, because the DPP leans in favor of independence from the mainland. Tsai Ing-wen won the election with 56 percent of the vote, ...
China enters 2016 facing an increasingly complicated domestic political and economic environment and growing challenges to its assertive foreign policy. Since becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party in November 2012, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has sought to consolidate his power and rejuvenate the Party through a sweeping campaign against ...
Before Chinese President Xi Jinping made it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for his meeting with President Obama this fall, his Boeing 747-400 had a layover in Redmond, Washington, where he met with chief executives from the top American technology companies. Western tech firms have come into conflict with the Chinese ...
The increased tempo of commercial partnerships between American and Chinese technology companies has begun to raise eyebrows in Washington. National security circles worry that such partnerships are degrading the American military’s technological superiority, because American technologies are being transferred to Chinese partners tied to the military. Such concerns are valid. ...
Robert Atkinson, founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, discussed implications for western technology firms operating in China as the Chinese government begins to demand access to encryption keys. Atkinson views this move as an attempt by the Chinese government to push its own protectionist policies, under ...
Twice last month, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea asked the United States of America to begin discussions on a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War. The problem, as Korea watcher Andrei Lankov has noted, is that Pyongyang does not want to include South Korea in the talks ...
When leaders of Japan, South Korea, and China gather in Seoul this weekend, it may be best to paraphrase Sigmund Freud: Sometimes, a meeting is just a meeting. The Seoul confab will be the first trilateral meeting of Northeast Asia’s main powers since May 2012. This time, however, a new ...
China’s exploitation of national security concerns to shield its technology companies from foreign competition has shifted the global competitive landscape. American companies, hindered by China’s Great Firewall and restrictive trade policies, are limited in their ability to compete fairly in the market. Behind this protection, Chinese Internet and technology giants ...
In his November 2012 address to the Politburo Standing Committee, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to rid the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of corruption, vowing to capture both the ‘tigers’ and the ‘flies.’ He has since implemented what is considered the farthest-reaching anti-corruption campaign in the modern history of the ...
The Cipher Brief sat down with Rodney Faraon, a partner at Crumpton Group, to get his thoughts on China’s recent corruption crackdown. The former CIA analyst weighed in on President Xi Jinping’s efforts to rid the Community Party of corruption and discussed the implications for Western companies in China. TCB: ...
Under President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, China is engaged in either a multi-year campaign to reduce corruption, or a purge of Xi’s political opponents, or both. While the goals of the campaign are unclear, the intensity is not – very senior Party cadres have been targeted. As ...
President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign is roiling China. Here are the top five things you need to know: 1. It’s Not an Anti-Corruption Campaign Xi Jinping has vowed to end corruption and jail both high- and low-level officials, “tigers” and “flies” in Communist Party lingo. That, however is not what he ...