Joel Wing-Lun is a Research Associate in the Lowy Institute's East Asia Program.
- The Global Times published an interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski in which he says that China's greatest challenges 'are derived from success'. Sections on foreign policy were omitted by the editors, and published on the CSIS website.
- Zheng Wang argues that China's top leadership lacks foreign policy experience, and that behind the nationalistic rhetoric, China's foreign policy is 'ambivalent, even weak'. In a similar vein, Linda Jakobson argues that Chinese policymakers often lack experience and expertise in managing complex international relations as a major power.
- China is planning its first commercial transit of the Northern Sea route. Chinese estimates suggest 5-15% of the country’s international trade could travel via the Arctic by 2020.
- China makes efforts to tame the 'five ocean dragons' – its maritime agencies – by consolidating them under the State Oceanic Administration.
- Tom Orlik explains why Chinese economic data are not always as they seem.
- China's first lady, Peng Liyuan, is making her diplomatic debut as she accompanies Xi Jinping to Russia, Tanzania, the Republic of Congo and South Africa. Breaking with her invisible predecessors, the popular singer's fashionable attire has caused a sensation online, crashing the website of a favoured local label.
- As the AP reports, Peng Liyuan 'is best known for her stirring renditions of patriotic odes'. Here she sings 'In the Hopeful Field':