Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Tuesday in a sign of mutual support and shared opposition to Western democracies amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “We would like to express our highest appreciation and admiration for the successes that you have achieved over the years and, above all, over the last … Read more
Earlier this week, U.S. President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first phone call since the two leaders met face-to-face in San Francisco last November. In the Chinese readout of the call, Xi reportedly stated that “China-U.S. relations are stabilizing.” Both sides have accepted the premise that bilateral competition requires diplomatic communication. Nonetheless, … Read more
From March 31 to April 2, Prabowo Subianto visited China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, his first foreign trip since winning Indonesia’s presidential election in February. During the visit, Xi Jinping congratulated Prabowo on his electoral success and highlighted the high quality of the two nations’ recent bilateral cooperation, notably exemplified by projects … Read more
China’s nationalist leader, Xi Jinping, called for closer trade ties with the United States during a meeting on Wednesday with top American business leaders. The gathering in Beijing came amid a steady improvement in relations that had sunk to the lowest level in years. Xi emphasized the mutually beneficial economic ties between the world’s two … Read more
For observers of Chinese politics, the most significant development in the second half of 2023 was not what occurred, but rather what failed to happen: The 20th Central Committee’s Third Plenum, which typically takes place in late October or early November the year after the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was notably … Read more
While predicting China’s trajectory has always been fraught with danger, there are a few trend lines that provide some guidance. These trend lines stem from what the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Neil Thomas has astutely framed as Xi Jinping’s three “balancing acts”: balancing economic growth with security, balancing diplomatic “struggle” against the United States with … Read more
On February 1, 2024, after renewing diplomatic ties with Nauru, a former ally of Taiwan, Qian Bo, China’s special envoy to Pacific Island nations, expressed China’s willingness to cooperate with Nauru in combating climate change. This initiative is part of a wider trend in China’s engagement with developing countries on environmental issues. Over the past … Read more
The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia policy. This conversation with Dr. Kenneth Dekleva – professor of Psychiatry and director of Psychiatry-Medicine Integration at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; senior fellow at the George H.W. Bush Foundation … Read more
In the quest for modern governance solutions, China continues to explore innovative methods to ensure local accountability without adopting Western-style democratic elections. This trend has been particularly notable during Xi Jinping’s tenure, marking a significant deviation from the methodologies preferred by his predecessors. Under Xi, the once-promoted enthusiasm for local elections has significantly waned. A … Read more
China’s President Xi Jinping and and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, entered the Year of the Dragon by exchanging greetings and affirming their bilateral ties on February 8, just two days before the start of the Lunar New Year. Beijing and Moscow’s mutual resentment and suspicion of the Washington- and Brussels-led alliance of democracies continues … Read more