A powerful Chinese political elite fears those citizens who raise their voice against it. The case of a political prisoner in Inner Mongolia, as much as that of the Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, reveals the distance it has to go to temper strength with justice, say Kerry Brown & Natalia Lisenko
The Beijing elite’s vehement reaction to an imprisoned dissident’s Nobel award is a sign of its political vulnerability, says Kerry Brown.
The award of the Nobel peace prize to Chinese rights activist Liu Xiaobo is a landmark moment. In January 2010, Kerry Brown assessed Liu's significance - and Temtsel Hao anticipated this moment (archive)
China is a favoured stopover for a former prime minister with money on his mind. But this is a game that his hosts too are playing, says Kerry Brown.
The transition to a new Chinese leadership has already begun. The domestic and international demands made of it will be greater than ever. But the character of the emerging generation will severely constrain its ability to cope, say Kerry Brown & Loh Su-hsing.
Chinese politics exist on an economic cliff-edge. This makes the outcome of a contest within the country’s elite decisive, not least for the future relationship with the United States, says Kerry Brown.
The increasingly combative global stance of China’s political authorities is connected to the intense ferment of Chinese society in the society it governs, says Kerry Brown.
The disappearance of a Chinese lawyer after his arrest by China’s security agents amplifies the wider dilemma of the country’s political elite, says Kerry Brown.
Barack Obama’s tour of east Asia highlights a shared leadership challenge over North Korea’s nuclear and political future, say Kerry Brown & Jiyoung Song.
Barack Obama’s achievement has been to improve the United States-China relationship while unsettling China’s elite by offering it co-superpower status. North Korea is a test of Beijing’s resulting dilemma, says Kerry Brown.
I spent the month of August 2009 travelling around China and looking at the state of democracy (in the sense of "village elections"), the rule of law, and
In summer 1995, I spent six weeks wandering around Xinjiang. It wasn't an easy place to get through at that time. A three-day train ride from Beijing to
