Hu Yaobang is one of China’s unsung heroes. Inside China, anyone who can remember the bloodshed in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 will also remember the well-respected Hu. But outside China, we tend to forget …
Articles by: "Robert Wihtol"
To call Thae Yong-Ho’s career trajectory remarkable is an understatement. Following a stellar career as a North Korean diplomat, culminating in his appointment as deputy ambassador in London, at age 54 Thae and his family …
Russia’s war on Ukraine, the war in the Middle East and the yawning chasm between liberal Americans and MAGA supporters defined much of the presidency of Joe Biden and are likely to define the political …
North Korea is again in the global spotlight. By providing first munitions and now troops to support Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has expanded the scope of the Ukraine conflict while driving its …
Xi Jinping’s life, like the lives of all China’s top leaders, is hidden behind a wall of secrecy. Xi has been in power for 12 years, but we know little about him beyond what we …
The American president’s national security advisor is second only to the secretary of state in the United States’ foreign policy establishment. The position provides the president with independent advice on foreign policy decisions. It has …
Zhou Enlai was a giant of twentieth century international relations. Serving as China’s premier from the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 until his death in 1976 and also as China’s first foreign minister, …
In April the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or more precisely the Washington Treaty that forms the basis for the alliance, turned 75. NATO’s visibility has waxed and waned, but Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine …
At the Chinese Communist Party congress in October 2017, ‘Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era’ was formally incorporated in the party constitution—alongside Mao Zedong thought, Deng Xiaoping theory, Jiang …
Held on 5-11 March, China’s National People’s Congress, the most important event in the country’s annual political calendar, was remarkable mainly for how unremarkable it was this year. Premier Li Qiang’s report on the work …
Journalists, it has been said, write the first rough draft of history. This is particularly true in China, where official sources and local media provide an incomplete picture and unofficial sources are scarce. As a …
Recent Russian efforts to interfere in US elections, track down and eliminate defectors and other ‘disloyal elements’, and plant disinformation using social media are nothing new. Rather, they are the continuation by modern means …