China & Taiwan

Obscurity By Design: Competing Priorities for America’s China Policy

Introduction Few notes of concord survive contact with Donald Trump. Trump’s election in 2016 upended settled assumptions; one by one he knocked down the pillars of consensus and convention that held up decades of American diplomacy. The strongest and...

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Strengthening US Alliances in the Indo-Pacific

American allies in the Indo-Pacific are the cornerstone of the US strategy to maintain regional stability, deter aggression, and uphold a free and open international order. Through access, interoperability, and shared capabilities, these alliances extend American power and enable...

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Russia-China-North Korea Relations: Obstacles to a Trilateral Axis

Introduction Russia and China have had diplomatic relations with North Korea and each other for more than 75 years, but Russian and Chinese relations with North Korea could not be more different. North Korea is China’s sole military ally,...

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AI Dependence and Political Blind Spots Undermine Beijing’s War Strategy

Executive Takeaway China’s Civil-Military Fusion (CMF; 军民融合) strategy, combined with its artificial intelligence (AI)–driven cognitive warfare (认知战) capabilities, aims to offset the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA; 中国人民解放军) lack of modern combat experience by using big data, social control mechanisms,...

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China’s Georgian Gamble

As Georgia pivots away from the West and slides into dictatorship, China emerges as its key strategic partner. While Washington and Brussels struggle to find transatlantic unity and craft a unified approach to Russia and Ukraine, Beijing methodically expands...

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Forceful Taiwan Reunification: China’s Targeted Military and Civilian-Military Measures

For nearly a century, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan have largely avoided direct military confrontations across the Taiwan Strait. However, there have been four notable exceptions: the Taiwan Strait crises of 1954–55, 1958, 1995–96, and most...

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Russia and China in the Indo-Pacific: China’s Use of the Instruments of Power

  Introduction The first report in this series examined Chinese and Russian influence and interests in the Indo-Pacific region. This report, the second of five in the series, analyzes China’s use of the instruments of power to build its...

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Recommendations to Congress for Strengthening Asia Policy

With a newly elected Congress, there is an opportunity to reinforce the US focus on the Indo-Pacific. As geopolitical dynamics in the region continue to evolve, it will be important for Congress to consider funding and legislative measures that...

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Strengthening Pacific Security: US Shiprider Agreements

Shiprider Agreements and the US Coast Guard Early last year, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) cutter Harriet Lane, with Vanuatu maritime law enforcement officials on board, conducted an expeditionary patrol that moved through Vanuatu’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)....

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Is Taiwan Fever Breaking in Lithuania?

One of Taiwan’s most significant foreign policy achievements since the COVID-19 pandemic was the expansion of its unofficial diplomatic cooperation with Lithuania. Both countries opened unofficial representative offices in each other’s capitals—in 2021, Taiwan’s office opened in Vilnius, and...

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