Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Research and analysis on China’s foreign policy and role in the world.
The U.S. and Chinese presidents talked about trade and tariffs when they met in Buenos Aires. What is the view from China?
In the midst of increasingly competitive and near-confrontational relations, it is important to remain clear-eyed about the difficulties that the United States and China face going forward.
The U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty reflects Washington’s long-standing concern that the treaty constrained its ability to counter China’s fast-growing missile forces in the Asia Pacific.
The Taiwan Strait is not at immediate risk of a crisis, but a changing status quo and diminishing trust between Beijing, Taipei, and Washington signal possible trouble ahead.
In recent years, China has expended considerable efforts to build a sea-based nuclear force for the primary purpose of enhancing its overall nuclear deterrent. Although Beijing’s goal is limited and defensive, the practical implications of its efforts for regional stability and security will be significant.
For many years, China has mostly relied on land-based nuclear weapons as its strategic deterrent. But now its fleet of nuclear-armed submarines is getting larger and more advanced. This long-term trend has far-reaching implications.
How China should understand and manage political risk in Venezuela has become one of the most important, if too often ignored, questions not just in China’s relationship with Latin America, but in its broader efforts to be seen as an agent and leader of development on the world stage.
The Singapore summit reduced U.S. leverage with North Korea and produced a vague statement which failed to advance denuclearization.
The international community views the Belt and Road through a zero-sum lens. To succeed, Beijing should focus on its domestic aspirations, international responsibilities, and nonmonetary investments.
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was established far earlier than the BRI, and it has become a sophisticated framework for China’s partnerships with African countries. Thus, FOCAC can be a mini-version of multilateral cooperation that aids the implementation of BRI projects.
The international community must design a fair and reasonable North Korea denuclearization road map that is politically sustainable, technically operable, and that can protect the long-term interests of all concerned parties.
China has often been accused of practicing “debt-trap diplomacy”—miring supposed partners, particularly developing countries, in unsustainable debt-based relationships. But this is a misreading of the issue, and nowhere is this more apparent than in China’s dealings with Venezuela.
Chinese experts are increasingly using the term “strategic stability” to refer to a bilateral nuclear relationship of mutual vulnerability. Maintaining such a mutually vulnerable relationship with other major nuclear powers, especially the United States, is of ultimate importance for Chinese decisionmakers.
For the visit to be a success, Pompeo should leave Pyongyang with specific details on the North Korean nuclear inventory, concrete next steps and a timeline which shows Kim is earnest in denuclearizing, and an agreement on how verification of any of the aforementioned objectives will happen.
China and Latin America must confront the legacy of past deals gone wrong and attempt to move beyond commodity-based trade, investment and financing ties to forge more infrastructure cooperation.
China’s and India’s respective military postures, and the perceptions these developments engender on both sides, indicate a path forward. These nuclear rivals should take steps to stabilize their relationship and reduce the chances of conflict.
Despite the pageantry of the Singapore summit, the outcomes remain uncertain.
U.S. President Donald Trump is focusing too much on the spectacle of his meeting with Kim Jong-un and not enough on achieving positive results.
The historic Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is more of a North Korea victory rather than U.S. victory.
Whatever the outcome, the June 12 Trump-Kim summit will have major implications for the region’s security landscape.