China

Posted: Monday, February 22, 2010
Author: Andrew Baer

President Mugabe spent part of his 86th Birthday celebration at the Chinese embassy in Harare on Sunday. The event was a rare occurrence, said Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwia, because Mugabe hasn’t visited a foreign embassy since 1980. Such action “proves the special friendly relations between the two countries”, but furthermore reveals that China is becoming especially audacious regarding their relationships with oppressive African regimes. Despite criticism from the West concerning human rights, China has made it clear that its relations with Africa will not be limited or defined by African nations’ internal politics; rather it is willing, its leaders proudly claim, to deal with any and all African governments.

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010
Author: Dan Lawner

President Obama seems hard-pressed, these days, to get a win. In his foreign policy, his desire to press the restart button with the world and focus on engagement and multilateralism may have created warm fuzzies, but relatively little in the way of results. On Tuesday, Iran ‘s announcement that it would proceed in autonomously enriching Uranium will test the Obama administration to (a) effectively switch from an engagement track to a confrontation track and (b), to cash in on its talk of multilateralism to coordinate targeted sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

As of now, China remains the main obstacle to passing a Security Council resolution, as administration officials now believe “that they would have the support of Russia” in a referendum on sanctions. China’s long-standing reluctance to meddle in the affairs of nations with whom they have significant trading or strategic relationships, coupled with a rocky patch in Sino-U.S. relations makes them an especially tough party to convince in support of sanctions. But a Reuters Analysis from yesterday suggests China’s willingness to consider sanctions if (and this is a big “if”) their business and energy relationships with the Revolutionary Guard are protected.

Posted: Monday, February 1, 2010
Author: Andrew Baer

In his just-released memoirs On The Brink, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson alleges that top Russian officials made overtures to their Chinese counterparts suggesting coordinated economic disruption (warfare?) against the United States in the Summer of 2008. Paulson claims that during the 2008 Summer Beijing Olympics Russian officials pressed China to dump its Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac holdings, suggesting “that together they might sell big chunks of their GSE holdings to force the U.S. to use its emergency authorities to prop up these companies.” Central bank data confirms that Russia sold all 65.6 billion dollars worth of its Mae-Mac holdings mid-2008. Though China rejected Russia’s proposal, the incident highlights the potential for state-level, non-military disruptions as a potential blind-spot in U.S. National Security thinking.

Posted: Friday, October 30, 2009
Author: Ed Levandoski

The Economist has released a special report on the relations between the U.S. and China. With President Obama’s upcoming visit to China in November, many speculate that there will be discussion regarding U.S.-China military relations and the strength of the Chinese military. On October 1st, China celebrated its National Day with a parade of soldiers, weapons and other displays of military strength. China’s recent build-up of military power has far surpassed its declared intention of dealing with China’s political interests in Taiwan, and raises the question of its possible goal to become a military power comparable to the United States.