To uphold world peace, promote common development and seek cooperation and winwin is the common wish of the people around the world and an irresistible trend of our times. Committed to peace, development and cooperation, China pursues a road of peaceful development, and endeavors to build, together with other countries, a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity.

China is confronting widespread violent and even deadly social unrest, raising Communist Party alarms about national security. Some observers speculate that unrest could undermine China’s national leadership, as it did in the Ukraine and the Philippines. Some U.S. policy makers might welcome unrest in China as a path to democracy and “freedom.” But rather than an opportunity to transform China’s political order, China’s social unrest should be understood as the unavoidable side effects—worsened by local corruption—of successful market reforms and expanded economic and social choice.

China considers its energy supplies, particularly oil and natural gas, to be increasingly insecure. While prior to 1993 it was a net oil exporter, China now has the largest annual increases in oil consumption in the world, forecast to run at a rate of around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2006 and 2007 by the US Department of Energy. This is being driven by economic growth of about 10% per year. Despite efforts to slow this runaway growth rate, China will still be the largest single driver of growth in oil consumption during the next decade. Meanwhile, its domestic oil production, while substantial at 3.8 million bpd, is forecast to remain relatively flat or decline slightly, so all incremental increases in demand will have to be satisfied by imports.

China has become a global manufacturing power and is already displacing the United States as the primary trading partner for many nations. It is utilizing increased East Asian economic interdependence and skillful diplomacy to co-opt the interests of its neighbors and assert its influence throughout Asia. China’s economic and political clout is also increasingly felt well beyond Asia, especially in countries and regions that China regards as important for its growing energy needs. Its military spending has aroused concern in the region and the United States. In the United States there is a far-reaching debate as to whether there is a “China threat” and whether cooperation or containment is the right long-term approach toward China.

Last week Stephen Young, America’s de facto ambassador in Taipei, Taiwan, held his first substantive press conference with Taiwan’s media to deliver the most recent iteration of the Bush Administration’s “Taiwan Policy.” Ambassador Young made it clear that he was speaking authoritatively on behalf of the Administration, having just returned to Taipei from consultations in Washington. The sobering presentation foreboded the future of Taiwan’s relationship with the United States.

China is a relatively new player in the Middle East and in the Persian Gulf in particular. Whereas Egypt was the first Arab country to establish diplomatic relations with China, it was not until 1990 that Beijing had established ties with all of the littoral states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (G.C.C.).

China’s journey in just 25 years from the periphery to the center of the world economy is truly phenomenal. It took both Britain and the United States far longer to achieve the share of global output and trade that China has today.

China’s greatest strategic threat today is its national image. The country is not, in the short term, likely to be invaded. The country’s most important strategic issues, challenges as diverse as sustaining economic growth and the threat of Taiwanese independence, have at their root a shared connection to China’s national image (guojia xingxiang). Tactical challenges such as the quality of foreign direct investment (FDI) that the country attracts, the willingness of other nations to provide technological and educational aid, and the spread of Chinese businesses into international markets all share a basis in national image. Even the leadership’s desire to maintain internal stability has ties to how the country is seen and how she sees herself. For one of the few times in its history, this famously inward-looking nation is vulnerable to how it is seen abroad. How China is perceived by other nations – and the underlying reality that perception reflects—will determine the future of Chinese development and reform.

The National Defense University (N.D.U.) of the People's Liberation Army (P.L.A.) is China's foremost military education institution. An average of 1,000 Chinese officers graduate every year in diverse fields of study. For many years after its founding in 1984, the N.D.U. has been relatively unknown to the outside world, with very few foreign officers being allowed to attend the more advanced courses.

It is common knowledge that China is the most important ascending world power, and one that has only begun to realize its economic and military potential. Before the World Trade Center bombings on September 11, 2001, neoconservative strategists in Washington identified China as the most significant future threat to U.S. interests and defined the Sino-American relation as one of "strategic competition" rather than "strategic partnership." Although the "war on terrorism" has taken precedence over the longer term conflict with China in Washington's geostrategy, the neoconservatives' pre-9/11 judgment was well founded and remains so.

Relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China continue to grow in importance. Many people believe that the bilateral relationship is already the most important in the world; others think it is only a matter of time. While common concerns and interests are readily discernable, the two countries have not yet established a way to work together to achieve them. An evolving regional and international environment has produced new security challenges and created a new context for U.S.-China relations. China’s domestic evolution and increasingly bitter domestic politics in the U.S. compound the difficulties in stabilizing the relationship.

China’s rising maritime power is encountering American maritime power along the sea lines of communication (SLOCs) that connect China to vital energy resources in the Middle East and Africa. The “String of Pearls” describes the manifestation of China’s rising geopolitical influence through efforts to increase access to ports and airfields, develop special diplomatic relationships, and modernize military forces that extend from the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, and on to the Arabian Gulf. A question posed by the “String of Pearls” is the uncertainty of whether China’s growing influence is in accordance with Beijing’s stated policy of “peaceful development,” or if China one day will make a bid for regional primacy.

When China first intrigued America, in the late 18th century, we desired its tea and silk. The American missionaries and traders who reached Canton and other ports did not trouble to reflect on what China might want of us—nothing more than the Christian gospel and gadgets and tobacco, they seemed to assume. In the years since, Americans seldom have had occasion to ponder the question.

The agreement is the latest of several signs that a determined effort this month by the opposition here to recall President Chen Shui-bian could have the more important side effect of thawing relations between Taipei and Beijing.

La decisión de la Audiencia Nacional de investigar el genocidio de Tíbet a mediados del siglo pasado y la persecución -torturas y encarcelamiento masivo de sus seguidores- del movimiento espiritual Falun Gong ha causado un evidente malestar en el Gobierno chino, que ha pedido las correspondientes explicaciones al español. La aplicación del principio de jurisdicción universal, ejercida por aquellos países que como España tienen reconocido ese principio en su legislación interna, suele venir acompañada de los naturales roces con los Gobiernos de los países afectados, que ven en la iniciativa judicial foránea una intromisión en sus asuntos internos.

Indian defense minister Pranab Mukherjee's recent visit to Japan, China and Singapore indicates the emergence of a creative regional security strategy that boosts New Delhi's global image, Indian defense analysts said Tuesday.

While for the next several days the United States, Japan, Europe, Australia, and Canada continued to escalate their tsunami aid packages to an eventual total of over $4 billion, China was playing aid catch-up ball with rival Taiwan, which had started off the week with a generous pledge of $50 million. By mid-January China had pledged about $63 million, though Taiwan’s relief teams were far more visible in the stricken areas than China’s.

China’s rapid rise as a regional political and economic power with global aspirations is an important element of today’s strategic environment – one that has significant implications for the region and the world. The United States welcomes the rise of a peaceful and prosperous China. U.S. policy encourages China to participate as a responsible international stakeholder by taking on a greater share of responsibility for the health and success of the global system from which China has derived great benefi t.

Although Beijing in principle supports U.S. efforts to thwart international terrorist activities, Chinese leaders and analysts believe the Bush Administration has defined the war on terrorism (WOT) too broadly and simplistically.

A state visit to Saudi Arabia by President Hu Jintao of China this weekend offered the latest sign of shifting winds across the oil-rich Gulf region: China has grown as a major market for oil, and Arab states have begun turning to it as an alternative to the United States and Europe in other areas.

China's decision to drop subversion charges against a Chinese researcher for the New York Times, Zhao Yan, may help to smooth the upcoming visit to Washington of President Hu Jintao. But the Bush administration's latest National Security document published Thursday lays down a set of warnings and guidelines for China that could make an already difficult relationship more edgy.

The recent East Asian Summit (EAS) was hyped as a precursor to a larger East Asian Community (EAC), something in the mold of an Asian version of the “European Union.” Instead, the first EAS brought historic strategic rivalries and conflicting geopolitical interests of the major powers into sharp relief.

It was a rude shock for many in the West this past April when tens of thousands of anti-Japanese demonstrators took to the streets of Shanghai and dozens of other Chinese cities for several days of violent protests. Shouting anti-Japanese slogans, they smashed the windows of Japanese stores and restaurants, overturned Japanese cars, and burned Japanese flags and photos of Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

China is unusual in today’s world because it is part empire and part modern nation. A modernizing Marxist-Leninist party state has been built upon a very old and successful tradition of governance and the imperial mentality that went with it.

This article originally appeared on PacNet Newsletter published by Pacific Forum/CSIS on February 14, 2006.

Today, China possesses approximately 85 nuclear-capable land-based ballistic missiles; no more than twenty have sufficient range to target the continental United States.

China’s policy of economic reform and opening up has resulted in the integration of China into the world community in ways more profound than many would have predicted, though the degree and scope of integration has varied by sector and subject. Nowhere is this better seen than in the Chinese government’s efforts to adapt to – and control – new technologies.

In two years of fruitless negotiations with the Europeans, Iran won precious time to work on the world's first Islamist atomic bomb. Yesterday, the diplomatic two-step moved to Moscow with the full blessing of an "international community" apparently willing to keep engaging the mullahs in open-ended negotiations. The West, it seems, is now putting its future security in the hands of Russia and China.

China and Iran are trying to conclude a multibillion-dollar oil-and-gas deal in coming weeks, underscoring how China's appetite for energy could undermine Washington's efforts to isolate Iran.

Any user searching the Internet from China through Google.cn for “Tiananmen,” “Falun Gong,” “Dalai Lama,” or even “democracy” now finds Communist Party propaganda in the place of open discussion. In return for a home within the “Great Firewall of China,” Google has sold out the principles of openness and universal access that it ostentatiously defends.

Recent reported police killings of protestors in the southeast Chinese villages of Panlong and Dongzhou raise serious questions about China's struggle for a more sophisticated strategy to contain mounting unrest. For now, mass protests don't threaten the government's survival, but the specter of chronic unrest is haunting Beijing's leaders and affecting vital policy initiatives, including relations with the U.S.

Testimony presented to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on February 3, 2006

The Chen Shui-bian government’s moves toward dismantling Taiwan’s (largely symbolic) political inks with China have been the main cause of increased cross-Strait tensions. The momentum of these moves has diminished in recent months.

The problem of Chinese nuclear proliferation persists. The focus of attention has shifted from transfers directed by officials as an instrument of government policy to sales by Chinese firms that occur because of gaps in the Chinese domestic enforcement network.

Venezuela se encuentra inundada de dinero petrolero que desperdicia en programas internos y hemisféricos para asistir y cortejar a los pobres y a los poderosos. Mientras China está construyendo un sistema económico interno diversificado, Chavez, al igual que la mayoría de los caudillos latinoamericanos, reparte los botines existentes en lugar de crear oportunidades e instituciones para un futuro equilibrado y productivo, una vez que pase el auge petrolero.

China’s influence on North Korea is more than it is willing to admit but far less than outsiders tend to believe. Although it shares the international community’s denuclearisation goal, it has its own concept of how to achieve it.

Peaceful Development Is the Inevitable Way for China's Modernization; Promoting World Peace and Development with China's Own Growth; Developing by Relying on Its Own Strength, Reform and Innovation; Seeking Mutual Benefit and Common Development with Other Countries; and Building a Harmonious World of Sustained Peace and Common Prosperity.

This Report sets forth the Commission’s analysis of the U.S.-China relationship in the topical areas designated in the Commission’s Congressional mandate: the areas for the Commission to consider and about which it is to make recommendations to the Congress. These include China’s proliferation practices, its economic reforms, U.S. economic transfers to China, China’s energy needs, its firms’ access to the U.S. capital markets, U.S. investments in China, China’s economic and security impacts in Asia, U.S.-China bilateral programs and agreements, China’s record of compliance with its World Trade Organization commitments, and its government’s media control efforts.

In foreign policy it’s critical to “know thine enemy.” So American policymakers should be aware that Russia and China are inching closer to identifying a common enemy — the United States.

Following is a text of the joint statement at the conclusion of the fourth round of Six-Party Talks, as released in Beijing on September 19, 2005 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.

The rapid rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a regional political and economic power with global aspirations is one of the principal elements in the emergence of East Asia, a region that has changed greatly over the past quarter of a century. China’s emergence has significant implications for the region and the world.

The two sides reviewed the friendly contacts and progress in their bilateral relations in recent years and agreed that India-China relations have entered a new stage of comprehensive development.

Europeans who favor lifting the embargo insist that they need to send “a positive signal” to the leadership in Beijing. But what about the signal it would send to the people of China?

If Europe helps China to operate faster, farther and with more firepower, Japan and Taiwan will seek to meet the threat.

George W. Bush is in Europe in the wake of historic victories for democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Palestinian territories. He hopes for Europe's support for a global foreign policy, the hallmark of which will be "governments that answer to their citizens."