On November 30, 2015, the International Monetary Fund’s executive board announced the decision to include China’s Renminbi into the Special Drawing Right Basket (SDR), effective October 2016. Created by the IMF in 1969 in the context of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system, SDR is an international reserve asset that helps its holder…
On October 29th, 2015, Beijing announced the nullification of the nigh universally loathed “One Child Policy” as part of the regime’s new Five Year Plan. Effective immediately, each couple will be allowed two children, from a statement by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The intended purpose of the policy course reversal is to counterbalance the…
In the fall of 2011, President Obama announced significant policy changes constituting a complete “rebalance” of defense resources and foreign policy interests to the Asia-Pacific region. Also known as the “Pivot to Asia,” these policy changes included intensified regional U.S. involvement in terms of military spending, military presence, foreign policy, and economic policy. During this…
The massive scale of the environmental disaster, which takes form in the transboundary haze pollution happening in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, has been dubbed a “crime against humanity”; though the fundamental cause for the persistent detrimental haze is the all-too-common domino effect of corruption in local politics. The haze has been an annual problem in Southeast…
On October 12, Project Pengyou: Claremont attended a fireside chat with some of “The Original China Hands” at UC Berkeley. Thomas Gold and John Thompson were among the first American representatives in China after the US and PRC formally established diplomatic relations in 1979. Gold spent a year at Fudan University in Shanghai, became a…
![Former Saudi King Abdullah meets with then-Chinese Vice President, Xi Jinping [Photo Credit: Reuters]](../../../wp-content/uploads/2015/10/abdullahxi-220x126.jpg)
“Whoever controls the Middle East controls the world’s energy and wealth . . . whoever dominates the Middle East can rule the entire world, too.” – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, January 31, 2010 In many respects, the Middle East’s instability draws from the state of conflict created by many nations vying for individual dominance over energy markets. …
Interview by Jenya Green and Zijia He, Arthur R. Adams International Affairs Fellows Interview transcript by Zijia He David Barboza has been a correspondent for The New York Times based in Shanghai, China, since November 2004. In 2013, Mr. Barboza was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting “for his striking exposure of corruption at high levels…
Buried in the South China Sea, hundreds of miles off the coast of Hainan Province, hide two clusters of islands. Contrary to the common process of water erosion, the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands are actually growing. These two archipelagos are claimed sovereign territory by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and have…
At its core, the European Union (EU) is a multilateral institution rooted in members’ common interests and consent. For this reason, Europeans often identify with ideas that correspond with their ideals, as exemplified by four key European allies’ (the U.K., Germany, France, and Italy) agreement to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), an…
Many Latin American economies are currently struggling due in part to falling oil and commodity prices. In spite of the economic difficulties affecting much of Latin America, countries such as China, Russia, and South Korea have continued to increase their investments and overall economic participation in the region. A great majority of the investment and…