China and Taiwan’s “National Question”: The Battle Over Cross-Strait Unity
What is complicating the Taiwan issue is not just the shifting military balance or the increasing US-China competition, but the growing divergence in the...
Xi’s India Visit Signals Diplomatic Thaw, but Business Ties Face Deep Distrust
Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit New Delhi for the annual BRICS summit, marking his first trip to India in seven years....
Xi’s Global South Tour Signed Zero New Dollars
Coalition-building requires new joint capital committed at the moment of political signaling. Hedging requires only showing up where the money already flows and collecting...
Japan’s Two-Track China Strategy Is a Model for US Allies
Japan's simultaneous pursuit of hard Taiwan deterrence and quiet parliamentary diplomacy with Beijing is not policy confusion — it is a deliberate, low-cost dual-track...
Why Korea’s “Nuclear Missile Drill” Isn’t Aimed at North Korea
Freedom Edge 26's nuclear-capable bomber component, paired with unusually explicit official language about North Korea's “nuclear and missile threats,” is not deterrence signaling aimed...
Raymond Aron’s Warning for Northeast Asia: Close the Window of Opportunity
Raymond Aron died in 1983, long before China emerged as the US’ principal strategic competitor, North Korea acquired nuclear weapons that could threaten the...
Promises and fissures in Sino-Indian boundary negotiations
The Special Representatives (SRs) Mechanism on the India-China Boundary Question completed 25 rounds of talks when China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted India’s National...
US Allies and the Taiwan Strait – Book Review
Adam P. Liff’s book is a concise yet conceptually rich contribution to the study of the Taiwan Strait. It argues that the US allies...
Is China a Perennial Developing Country (As it Claims) or a Developed Country (As Others Assert)? It Matters
The answer depends on a combination of steadfast official Chinese pronouncements that hinge on self-identity and how “developing country status” is defined. The truth...
Xi Jinping’s Art of Smart Dictatorship 3.0: Why China Rises as America Distracted?
In May 2026, at his own state banquet for Donald Trump in Beijing, Xi Jinping did something unusual for a leader who rarely improvises...