China & Taiwan

Managing Tensions, Maintaining Balance—Michael Beckley This month, we’re zeroing in on a core tension in US strategy toward China: how to strike the right balance between deterrence and reassurance. As Washington strengthens military postures, deepens coalitions, and hardens supply...

Contrary to the popular assessments of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership, Chinese and Russian national interests primarily converge in the Asia Pacific and Arctic, not in Europe and Ukraine. For the last two decades, the United States has not paid...

  Introduction This report analyzes Russia’s use of diplomatic, military, and economic instruments of statecraft to advance its interests in the Indo-Pacific region and examines how China perceives it. As with all reports in this series, this one defines...

Introduction The basic contours of President Donald Trump’s China policy and its implications for Taiwan remain uncertain. Many express concern Trump will sacrifice Taiwan for a grand bargain with Beijing. Rear Admiral Mike Studeman (Ret.), for example, suggests that...

Zimbabwe, once hailed as the breadbasket of Africa, is now grappling with profound political and economic challenges. Recent efforts by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to reset relations with the United States and the internal political rift that seems to be...

Would the United States come to the defense of Taiwan if the People’s Republic of China (PRC) invaded? Would the US Navy break a PRC blockade of Taiwan? How would the US military respond to a limited missile strike...

As the new Trump administration formulates its China strategy, defining clear end states will be essential to avoid a reactive or incoherent approach. A long-term rivalry with a peer competitor like China demands more than tactical responses—it requires a...

Executive Summary China’s rapid advancement in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet technology represents a direct challenge to global US operations, communications infrastructure, and the free flow of information. Leveraging BeiDou’s Navigation Satellite System (BDS), Beijing’s Global Positioning System...

Flowing from Tibet, the Lancang River goes through twelve Chinese megadams before reaching Laos as the Mekong River, a crucial freshwater source in Southeast Asia. A hydropower map from the Stimson Center shows 209 hydropower dams completed or under...

The pro-Russian tack taken by the Trump administration seems puzzling and even counterproductive to most Americans, to say nothing of our NATO allies and global partners. Recent polling shows a majority of Americans do not trust Putin, that there...