The Yangzi and Yellow Rivers race on without ceasing. In our vast land, time passes on. During 5,000 years, 180 years, 100 years, 70 years, 40 years, 8 years…as the wheel of time rolls forward, these points in history tell the story of the Chinese people’s vicissitudes in life and the glory of their ordeal. General Secretary Xi Jinping, from a deep historical perspective, has clearly noted that, “the socialist state and legal systems with Chinese characteristics has been formed over a ...Read more >

The Chinese government and its state-owned banks have lent record amounts to governments in lowand middle-income countries since the early 2000s, making China the world’s largest official creditor. Although several recent studies examine the economics of Chinese lending, we still lack basic facts about how China and its state-owned entities lend—in particular, how the loan contracts are written and what terms and conditions they contain. 1 Neither Chinese creditors nor their sovereign ...Read more >

I n his report to the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress in 2017, President Xi Jinping called for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to complete its force modernization effort by 2035 and field a world-class military capable of fighting and winning wars in any theater of operations by 2050 (“Full Text of Xi Jinping’s Report at 19th CPC National Congress,” 2017). The PLA has ...Read more >

China’s actions, and its rapid emergence as a major regional military power, has led the U.S. to focus its military and strategic planning on China as one of two critical threats. Along with Russia, it has become the central focus of U.S. security planning in both the new National Security Strategy (NSS) that the President issued in December 2017,and in the new National Defense Strategy (NDS) that the Secretary of Defense issued early in 2018. ...Read more >

This report is an experimental net assessment that addresses China s emergence as a global superpower, and its competition with the United States. The report is entitled China and the U.S.: Cooperation, Competition and/or Conflict. The entire report, and the report is available on the CSIS web site in several forms: • Key sections are available on the CSIS web site in PDF form by clicking on each section title. The size of some of these PowerPoints may present problems for some IT ...Read more >

Both the U.S. and Chinese governments currently strive for illusionary primacy in the Indo-Pacific.1 Washington possessed primacy for five decades and in its bureaucratic bones and muscle memory still wants it, whatever it says publicly and Beijing, mistakenly inspired by alleged long-term U.S. international decline, implements a grand strategy to acquire it.2 ...Read more >

In China, to date, the “active defense” military strategy has been adopted consistently. Gradually, it began to emphasize preemptive attacks as Mao Zedong and other leaders of the Chinese Communist Party of each period provided guidance to the army. Active defense in Mao Zedong’s era was premised on “striking only after the enemy has struck [houfa zhiren, 后发制人].” In Deng Xiaoping’s era, local war using conventional weapons was elevated to strategic level, and the active ...Read more >

This white paper was prepared as part of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment, entitled The Future of Global Competition and Conflict. Twenty-seven experts contributed to this white paper, providing wide-ranging assessments of China’s domestic and international activities in order to assess the future of China and the challenges that these activities may present to US interests. This white paper is divided into five sections and twenty-four chapters. While this summary presents some of ...Read more >

Cyberspace competition is, in the final analysis, a talent competition. As the new science and technology (S&T) revolution continues and industries upgrade, information technology is fundamentally changing the way people live and shaping new patterns of economic and social development and national security. Information security talent will play a critical role in this process of transformative development. Given the challenges and opportunities of this new era, the question of ...Read more >

Strategy originated in warfare, and it has developed as warfare has developed. The concept of strategy took shape, was enriched, and developed within a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the guidance of warfare. The ideas of strategy and related writings were first generated in the concept of ...Read more >

China is engaged in a global competition for power and influence with the United States. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards the liberal democratic values championed by the United States as a fundamental impediment to its external ambitions and an existential threat to its domestic rule. Chinese leaders’ assessment of the United ...Read more >

New methods of information operations, in the form of interference campaigns and disinformation, outline China’s shift toward adopting the principle of “discourse power.” China’s traditional foreign policy of “non-intervention” into foreign nations is no longer viable, as it has envisioned a different world order with itself ascending to the central role. Discourse power is the concept that a country can attain increased geopolitical power by setting agendas internationally ...Read more >

RUDYARD GRIFFITHS: General McMaster, thank you for coming to Toronto to be part of this debate. We’re really looking forward to your words tonight. H. R. MCMASTER: Thanks, Rudyard. It’s a real privilege to be here. I’m looking forward to ...Read more >

In June 2017, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted a massive reorganization of its officer and noncommissioned officer (NCO) academic institution structure. It reduced the number of officer academic institutions from 63 down to 34 and NCO institutions from four to three. Several of the officer institutions also have subordinate NCO schools. It did this by downgrading, resubordinating, merging, ...Read more >

Over the last several years, thousands of books have been written on the rise and role of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Many of those were edited volumes, which sought to bring together scholars that could highlight their specific area of expertise or insight. This volume ...Read more >