International Crisis Group

Next Up After U.S.-China Talks: The Details | Wall Street Journal

By Thomas Catan, Colleen McCain Nelson, and Jeremy Page

“There are a lot of broad statements and lofty hopes but the devil is always in the details,” said Stephanie T. Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Northeast Asia project director and China adviser for the International Crisis Group. “We’ll have to see what comes out of the strategic and economic dialogue and what changes we see on the ground in terms of China’s relationship with North Korea.”

FULL ARTICLE (Wall Street Journal)

Photo: US Army MWR/Flickr

Does Promoting “Core Interests” Do China More Harm Than Good? | China File

By Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, North East Asia Project Director

It is not by accident that China has consistently informed U.S. officials that the South and East China Sea are part of its core interests. “Core interests” has become a key concept that it has consistently pushed in its relations with Washington. Beijing was emboldened in this effort when the U.S. agreed to the term’s inclusion in the November 2009 US-China Joint Statement (“the two sides agreed that respecting each other’s core interests is extremely important to ensure steady progress in China-U.S. relations”). Since then, the Chinese have regularly invoked the term, more recently along with its corollary, the “new type of great power relations” (see below). Beijing was only too happy to see the previous U.S. guiding principle for the relationship, “responsible stakeholder,” replaced by its own phrase. Despite Beijing’s initial mistrust for the concept—as it sees such external calls to contribute to the global public good as an attempt to slow its rise – it ended up accepting it.  It was the U.S. that jettisoned it with the change of administration.

FULL ARTICLE (China File)

Photo: joshDubya/Flickr

China swiftly becoming exasperated with North Korea | Catholic Online

Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea expert at the International Crisis Group, said Beijing was “fed up” at the distractions being created by Pyongyang while it tries to focus its energies on other problems. “They need to address issues in the South China Sea, they have a corruption campaign going on at home, North Korea is giving them a headache,” Pinkston says.

China’s relationship with North Korea had become a liability, he says. “Why should China maintain relations with a regime and a country that will face failure sooner or later?” he asked. “Once North Korea has nuclear weapons, it cannot be ruled out that the capricious Kim regime will engage in nuclear blackmail against China,” he added.

FULL ARTICLE (Catholic Online)

Photo: Joseph A Ferris III/Flickr

China agencies press territorial claims in Asian waters | LA Times

By Barbara Demick

American concerns about Beijing’s growing maritime reach invariably focus on China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a rebuilt Soviet vessel that went into operation last year. Or on the projected 10.7% increase in the defense budget for 2013, the latest in a decade of double-digit hikes. Little is said about the nonmilitary agencies that are operating under the radar.

“It is a brilliant strategy by China to establish their control over an area without firing a single shot,” said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, head of the Beijing office of the International Crisis Group, a think tank that works on conflict resolution.

FULL ARTICLE (LA Times)

Photo: Kai Yan, Joseph Wong/Flickr

Will China rein in North Korea? | CBS News

By Shannon van Sant

In response to new United Nations sanctions, North Korea has canceled the armistice that ended the Korean War, ended a non-aggression pact with Seoul and cut off a military hotline meant to defuse incidents along the Korean border. North Korea’s actions have been coupled with verbal threats to “miserably destroy” U.S. troops and launch “pre-emptive nuclear strikes” and “final destruction” of Seoul.

As Pyongyang’s longtime ally and next-door neighbor, China could play a role in pressuring the regime, but how much influence Beijing has is unclear. China supported the last round of sanctions from the U.N., which places new limits on North Korean trade, banking and travel.

“The resolution is a strong one,” Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt of the International Crisis Group told CBS News. “It takes sanctions a step further than the previous resolutions. The question will always be the extent to which we see implementation.”

FULL ARTICLE (CBS News)

Photo: Joseph A Ferris III/Flickr

China: New leaders, same assertive foreign policy | CNN

By Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt

China’s legislature meets this week to seal a power transfer to new leaders, but don’t hold your breath for signs that the new team will ease up on the tough Chinese foreign policy that has ruffled feathers in its neighborhood recently.

As the National People’s Congress opened in Beijing, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Fu Ying warned that the country had sent an “important signal” to the region that it would respond “decisively” to provocations on territorial disputes.

That means we can expect Beijing to continue with its “reactive assertiveness” foreign policy tactic. China has perfected this approach in its ongoing maritime disputes in the South and East China Seas.

The approach allows Beijing to use perceived provocations as a chance to change the status quo in its favor — all the while insisting the other party started the trouble.

FULL ARTICLE

Photo: Dainis Matisons/Flickr