Country Report: Japan (March 2024)

Through the winter of 2024, as Kishida Fumio suffered low ratings amid an LDP funding scandal, foreign affairs were a secondary concern. End-of-year and start-of-year meetings kept relations […]

Introduction

Faced with Donald Trump’s unprecedented disruptions to US foreign policy and Kim Jong-un’s roller-coaster ride (from repeated provocations in 2017 to a diplomatic offensive in 2018), Xi Jinping […]

China’s Strategic Thinking toward the US Role in the Indo-Pacific, 2017-2020

No administration has been more consequential or definitive than the Trump administration in altering the course of US-China relations since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United […]

Repulsing Challenges to Sinocentrism in Northeast Asia, 2017-2020

Repeatedly, over the period 2017 to 2020, China’s leaders felt challenged over their agenda for Northeast Asia, with plans for other arenas also disrupted. The THAAD deployment, the […]

China’s Strategic Thinking toward India, 2017-2020

China–India relations from 2017 to 2020 fluctuated dramatically against a rapidly changing global environment. The period was bookended by two territorial disputes which drove bilateral relations to depressing […]

China’s Strategic Thinking toward Central Asia, 2013-2024

China’s thinking toward Central Asia is encapsulated by its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a grand strategy that has evolved over the past decade although Beijing has warned […]

Country Report: Russia (January 2024)

Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or One Belt One Road (OBOR) in Russian eyes) summit in Beijing, Xi Jinping’s summit with Joe Biden […]