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In October 2019, China’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Mauritius opened the Chinese market to Mauritian exporters and investors. Not long after, concerns arose that Mauritius might be lacking in the capacity to benefit significantly from the agreement and thus lose in terms of a trade imbalance that clearly favours China. This brief revisits China’s motivations for the FTA, and finds economic and geopolitical goals. Given Mauritius’s smal

China’s space policy planners are convinced that the country should aim for manned lunar landings by 2040. It has already established a sophisticated robotic lunar exploration programme and human landings are perceived as the logical next step. New navigation and communication architectures are being developed for this purpose, in addition to building life support systems and a suitable launch vehicle. However, China’s political leadership wo

Since the assumption of Xi Jinping to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone numerous changes, both in its modernisation and organisation, that are meant to ensure that the PLA forces will be battle-ready. The modernisation aims for the PLA to acquire the latest technology and logistics for quick and decisive victories in any theatre of battle. This brief exa

Since the assumption of Xi Jinping to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013, the People’s Liberation Army has undergone numerous changes, both in its modernisation and organisation, that are meant to ensure that the PLA forces will be battle-ready. The modernisation aims for the PLA to acquire the latest technology and logistics that can lead the military to quick and decisive victories in any theatre of ba

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone many changes since Xi Jinping became general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013. Efforts at modernising the PLA have been conducted in earnest for the past 10 years through the overhaul of the organisation and the introduction of latest technologies to make it battle-ready. This paper describes these capability-related and institutional changes in China’s military, wh

China’s evolving security dynamics with the United States have compelled it to rethink its nuclear strategy to achieve effective deterrence. It is aiming to modernise its nuclear arsenal and increase its nuclear ambiguity through conventional-nuclear entanglement. Ambiguity will increase the risks of mischaracterisation and can have a destabilising impact on the Indo-Pacific region. This paper highlights two areas where India ought to be most c

China’s nuclear weapons arsenal has grown and modernised over the recent years, and current estimates say the country has 350 operational warheads ready for delivery, over 248 land-based ballistic missiles, and 72 sea-based ballistic missiles. China also has 20 nuclear gravity bombs and additional warheads intended to be armed on land- and sea-based missiles. This brief outlines a history of China’s nuclear weapons programme, scrutini

Sharp power—a state's attempt to alter the behaviour of other countries through the manipulation of culture, education systems, and the media to further its interests—is a key tool of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Issues related to regime legitimacy and the CCP's development priorities have shaped China's sharp power approach. In the Xi Jinping era, there is some anxiety in the party ranks that external conditions are turning aga

Three months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the health crisis has wreaked havoc on people’s lives and livelihoods across the globe. Can state responsibility be apportioned for the pandemic, under the current international legal system? What would the elements of such responsibility be? This brief explores the concept of “state responsibility” under public international law and exam

New Delhi’s Indian Ocean woes aren’t confined to Sri Lanka. Across the Indian Ocean’s littorals, the Chinese navy has been preparing to establish a stronger security presence. On Pakistan’s Makran coast, the PLAN has deployed regularly, including at Gwadar, also constructed by CMPorts. Earlier this year, the PLA is said to have initiated talks with the Pakistan military for another outpost at Jiwani.

This brief aims to examine one of China’s possible responses to the various extremist and terrorist activities that plague the internal security of Pakistan, given the necessity of securing its USD 62 billion investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Given that Pakistan is failing to control this problem, China will have to take measures of its own to secure CPEC. The response of China could possibly be inspired by its strateg

China’s actions in Ladakh since 2020 are in violation of common understandings and have brought the focus of bilateral relationship back to the issue of the border. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of China’s behaviour along the India-China border by exploring a fresh perspective that explains the instability along the border as a function of China’s two-front conundrum. It makes a historical account of past events to arg

The China-brokered Saudi Arabia-Iran deal puts the spotlight on New Delhi’s ties with Tehran

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has detained an estimated one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps in the Xinjiang province for forced re-education and political indoctrination. While the West has deplored China’s actions, the major Muslim countries have defended and even welcomed the policy. China has exploited its economic and diplomatic clout and the growing indebtedness of the Muslim world to subdued any criticism of its actions

Over the past two decades, China, in the name of counterterrorism has been carrying out a repressive campaign against the minority Muslim Uyghur population in its northwest region of Xinjiang. Its policy has provoked widespread condemnation from Western democracies. However, Beijing appears unscathed by such criticisms, especially as the Muslim world has either remained silent, or else have approved China’s actions in the region. This pap

China’s ‘three warfares’ strategy (TWS)—understood as public opinion, psychological, and legal warfare—has received considerable attention, but most analyses focus on Beijing’s sovereign claim to Taiwan and its maritime claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. This occasional paper evaluates the manifestation of the TWS against India in Ladakh and China’s motivation for adopting the same approach in the Arctic and Antar

India’s ties with Beijing have frayed even as relations with Moscow lose warmth because of their actions

With the enhancement of power in the Indo-Pacific region, China is attempting to create new constructs in the security arena which will be exclusively for Asians and it will bestow primacy to themselves.

It is being argued that since 2024, China-India relations have shown signs of easing, with frequent high-level interactions.

An Indian maritime expert feels China, which had increased its defence budget several-fold in order to retain or recover its territories in the disputed area, is also cleverly diffusing the situation by having joint military exercises with countries around the area to prevent them from banding together against its claims.

As ancient and highly populated regions, China and the Indian subcontinent have for long shaped global migration patterns. But, unlike Delhi, which has had to deal with diaspora issues ever since Independence, Beijing's problems have just begun.

India needs to get a lot more clarity on what it expects from China. For all the economic engagement that India may have with China, it should not be under the illusion of its impact on the overall India-China relations.

Since the onset of the twenty-first century, China has employed various instruments of exchange diplomacy to overcome its historical 'century of humiliation’ and realise its 'Middle Kingdom’ dream. Riding on the platform of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has leveraged its strong economy and large human resources through tourism, education, and sister-city arrangements to strengthen people-to-people contact between its citizens, diaspora,

In Beijing, the overwhelming question a visitor faces is: What will be the outcome of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Will he bring a package to resolve the border question, or will he come with a basket of measures to attract Chinese investment in India?

China's increasing assertiveness is not ad hoc and random; it fits in with their overall military strategy. And, finding this strategy to be quite effective, Chinese leadership are promote it, according to Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

China’s communist party has survived where others have failed — a testament to its capacity to adapt and reinvent itself with the times. Mao’s successors put ideology aside and focused instead on economic growth.  Yet today, under Xi Jinping’s leadership, there is much lip-service paid to the ideology of the communist past, even while key communist principles like collectivism are actively undermined. With a slowing down economy, communi

The 6th BRICS Summit brought together the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on July 15 in Brazil. The annual diplomatic meeting announced plans for the New Development Bank, which would be located in Shanghai, China.

Tibet and the Dalai Lama's status continue to worry the Chinese. India's stated policy that Tibet is part of China notwithstanding, Chinese feel that India has a hidden agenda. The fact that Lobsang Sangay was invited to Modi's swearing-in has made the Chinese nervous.

The shift in Chinese foreign policy poses new and different kind of challenges to India. Even while we are working feverishly to ensure the defence of our Himalyan border militarily, the Chinese are throwing an economic challenge, as manifested by its growing ties with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Nepal.

India paid a high price for failing to anticipate the Sino-Pak nuclear nexus in the 1970s and 1980s. It is erring again by neglecting the potential for a maritime alliance between China and Pakistan that could severely constrain India's freedom of action in the Indian Ocean.

Given that the Chinese submarines are likely to be found operating frequently in the IOR, the Indian defence establishment must develop some adequate responses, rather than just being alarmed repeatedly.

It is not often that Pakistan's leaders justify their outreach to India by citing its all-weather friend, China. That is precisely what Pakistan's premier Yousuf Raza Gilani did last Sunday when he welcomed the talks between President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

With the World Bank punishing Bangladesh by withdrawing support to $3 billion multipurpose bridge over River Padma, Dhaka is hoping that China will step into the breach. Could India pit ch in too? Or Delhi and Beijing collaborate on a transformative economic venture in Banglade sh, setting a new basis for regional cooperation?

Apprehensions of China gaining an advantage in the tech rivalry through unfair means weigh heavily on US threat assessments.

As Jaishankar has pointed out, global shifts like the changing American role and increasing Chinese assertiveness have created more space for nations like India and Japan

I have been in receipt of some mail from my readers asking for my comments on the reports carried by the "Washington Post" and the CNN TV channel of the US during the week-end regarding the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the USA setting up a new intelligence collection unit called the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which has been operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries since 2002.

The exasperation of Porter Goss, the Director of the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with Pakistan's role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other remnants of the Al Qaeda, is evident from his remarks on bin Laden during an interview with the "Time" magazine which has been carried by it this week

In generations to come, India will no doubt produce finer minds; but it is unlikely to give us a bigger heart. More than his achievements as a missile and defence technologist, beyond governmental accomplishments and far removed from the prizes and honours he received, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam touched human lives.

Privatised electricity distribution in Delhi completed ten years last June. Now an important question which we have to ask time and again is, why should the citizens pay for the inefficiency of the distribution companies? This is yet another public service that has become a score point for political parties, giving no relief to the ordinary citizen.

At a conference on "Civil Society and Nuclear Weapons Policy", organised by ORF and Chatham House in Bangkok, there was a general consensus among participants that the emphasis should be given on raising awareness on the various hazardous impacts of the nuclear weapons explosion, especially in the nuclear weapons states.

Beginning March 26, 2015, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of countries, comprising nine other Arab countries, backed by the USA, France and UK, launched air strikes in Yemen against the Houthis and army units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Nepal's Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi has been appointed the Head of the interim government. His main mandate is to hold elections for the CA. But 22 opposition political parties have begun their protest programmes against the new government, raising doubts whether polls can be held in June this year.

In the CJ impeachment case in Sri Lanka, the options for the Government are fewer, while for the Chief Justice, it is still worse - when it comes to enforcing Parliament's will on the one hand and the judiciary's decisions on the other.

Cost and time over-runs have reportedly led to losses of approximately Rs29,000 crore in the DRDO; some 10 projects have been delayed for over five years. The Armed Forces continue to be woefully short of modern weapon systems, ammunition and a vast range of critical equipment.

A research study by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has found that there is a clear danger to India from CBR (Chemical, Biological and Radiological Materials) terrorism due to the known intentions of terrorist groups active within India's borders.

Even today, renewable energy sources definitely cannot replace fossil fuel that is getting scarce over time. Given this theoretical underpinning, why do we have a negative price for crude oil?