Jane's Intelligence Review

China Watch

*Rocking the boat - China prepares to expand its carrier navy
On or about 25 April 2009, the incomplete former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag made its first voyage in Chinese waters. From its berth in Dalian...
11-Jun-2009

*Red alert - China modernises its nuclear missile force
Beijing is now deploying or developing up to five intercontinental nuclear-armed ballistic missiles in what amounts to China's most ambitious increase in intercontinental ballistic missile...
14-May-2009

*Collision course - China and US make waves in South China Sea
Sixty-five nautical miles southeast of the resort town of Sanya on the southern coast of China's Hainan Island, the ocean floor drops off considerably and...
17-Apr-2009

*International rescue - China looks after its interests abroad
The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) dispatched three naval vessels to support international counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden in December 2008. This...
27-Feb-2009

*Diverging paths - Obama's policies may affect Sino-US relations
As Barack Obama begins his presidency, one of the key issues at the forefront of his foreign policy agenda will be the delicate balancing act...
09-Feb-2009

*Waiting game - China plays for time over Tibetan autonomy
Having faced down a tumultuous crisis in early 2008, China is increasingly assertive on the Tibet issue. On 26 November, it called off an EU-China...
02-Jan-2009

*Labour pains - unemployment and unrest in China
With the global liquidity crisis having already led to recessions in the US, eurozone and Japan, China's export-led economy is suffering from a lack of...
11-Dec-2008

*The invisible ban - EU maintains weapons embargo on China
With the annual EU-China summit taking place on 1 December 2008 in Lyons, France, attention will be focused on the global financial crisis, climate change...
13-Nov-2008

*Strait shooter - PLA expands and upgrades missile arsenal
That Taiwan is concerned by China's growing missile arsenal is not new. Beijing has been pursuing more effective theatre-range missile capabilities for more than a...
16-Oct-2008

*Fool's gold - The myth of Chinese power
From Beijing's perspective, the Olympic Games were a success. For the first time in its history, China topped the medals table, a symbolic victory of...
15-Sep-2008

*Cross-strait traffic
There are great expectations surrounding the current rapprochement process between China and Taiwan. Since the May inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) ...
11-Aug-2008

*Playing the Games - Sport and politics take to the field in Asia
George Orwell claimed in 1945 that "serious sport is war minus the shooting". It may be an exaggeraton, but the phrase highlights an oft-neglected issue ...
02-Jul-2008

*Air time - increasing China's aerial range
Much media attention has focused on the possibility of a Chinese aircraft carrier. Such an acquisition would have obvious strategic benefits for China in projecting ...
12-Jun-2008

*Breathing fire - China's media fuels nationalism
China's state-run media has recently undergone dramatic personnel changes, as a new generation of editors and managers have taken the reins of propaganda power. ...
15-May-2008

*Secret Sanya - China's new nuclear naval base revealed
China is constructing a major underground nuclear submarine base at Sanya, on Hainan Island off its southern coast, Jane's can confirm. Although Asian military sources...
15-Apr-2008

*China in their hands - Cracks form in a delicately crafted economy
Security analysis in China focuses on perceived international threats, social upheaval and disaffected minorities. Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Uighurs, Tibetans and the internal migration ...
10-Mar-2008

*Over a barrel - China's problems with oil
Power failures in China's central provinces in January have once again highlighted the importance of energy supply to the country's rapidly growing economy. Just two...
11-Feb-2008

*Reborn supremacy - China's control of Tibetan reincarnation
Reincarnation rarely overlaps with international security concerns. However, in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China, the topic has implications for the way Beijing rules...
17-Jan-2008

Borderline friends - Sino-Indian ties warily improve
India and China are to participate in a joint military exercise in December for the first time in their histories. The exercise, set up during ...
06-Dec-2007

*Missiles on parade - Taiwan displays more than its weapons
Taiwan conducted its first National Day parade for 16 years on 10 October, rolling out the bulk of its most sophisticated military hardware. In front...
14-Nov-2007

*Flying the flag - China's global military exercises
As Chinese officials ponder and academics debate the rationale and means for China to express a military dimension to its rapidly accumulating global economic and...
18-Oct-2007

*Party politics - The forthcoming leadership in China
At the end of August, a date of 15 October was set for the 17th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) National Party Congress. The fove-day assembly...
12-Sep-2007

*Troubled waters - China's efforts to quench its growing thirst
For centuries, Chinese emperors travelled annually to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing during the winter solstice to pray for good weather and bountiful harvests....
13-Aug-2007

*Naval gazing - Emerging expeditionary capabilities in the western Pacific
Areport by the Kanwa news agency on 6 July that contracts have already been issued for components of an indigenously built Chinese aircraft carrier has ...
19-Jul-2007

Going soft - China's alternative route to regional influence
Soft power was a term coined by Joseph Nye in the late 1980s to explain the ability of an entity to influence other entities ...
11-Jun-2007

Blossoming relations - Chinese visit signals easing of tensions
The visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Japan on 11 April brought praise from the Japanese media and raised hopes that Sino-Japanese relations ...
10-May-2007

*Strait race - China restrained in run-up to Taiwan's elections
With less than a year to go before Taiwan's presidential election in March 2008, the campaigning and positioning are already under way. Vice-President Annette ...
02-Apr-2007

*Peace maker - A security mechanism for Northeast Asia?
The establishment of the six-party talks mechanism and its continued cohesion has been one positive achievement among the many anxieties caused by North Korea's ...
28-Feb-2007

*Space to manoeuvre - Satellite attack upsets US space supremacy
On 11 January 2007, after three previous unsuccessful attempts, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) succeeded in performing a successful surface-to-space kinetic kill of a ...
07-Feb-2007

*Foreign friends - China expands relations with India and Pakistan
A contingent of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Special Forces troops from the Chengdu Military Region deployed to Pakistan for the Friendship 2006 counter-terrorism ...
05-Jan-2007

Trains to Nepal leave India feeling the cold
During a visit by Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to Lhasa in September 2006, the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region announced ...
14-Dec-2006

*Hu tightens his grip but still has to share
Four years after becoming Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary, Hu Jintao has further consolidated the hold of his 'fourth generation' on the CCP....
14-Nov-2006

*Taiwan stresses China's growing offensive options
The epic story of Taiwan's special arms procurement package from the US, first agreed in 2001, continues. Vice-Minister of National Defence Vice-Admiral Kao Kuang-hsi ...
24-Oct-2006

Boom and bust: will the Chinese economy crash?
The stability of the Chinese economy, along with its continued rapid growth, is fundamental to the continued solidity of Chinese society. The Chinese Communist Party ...
05-Sep-2006

Beijing displays its human rights diplomacy
China's vice-foreign minister Yang Jiechi's speech to the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Council was a further reminder that human rights remain an ...
15-Aug-2006

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