2026 Issue 33

As the United States hosted the G20 Ministerial in North Carolina, PRC’s leader Xi Jinping attended the SCO Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.  There it became even clearer that SCO is becoming a Beijing-Moscow club which does little to advance India’s interests.  Simultaneously, the Chinese Communist Party tried hard to disrupt the Pacific Island Forum by coercing leaders into skipping and sought to cover up the death toll and destruction in PRC-occupied Tibet due to flash flood that killed thousands in neighboring Nepal.

Reuters revealed that COSCO ships, the PRC State-owned Enterprise that dominates global logistics, spies on military communications for the CCP using concealed equipment.

Last week, the Chinese Communist Party forced pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong to plead guilty to a second national security law violation, one that holds a potential life sentence even as he was preparing to be released in January 2027 after having served prison time for his first conviction.

During a visit by Japanese lawmakers to Beijing, the CCP announced that it would not end its coercion of Japan until the prime minister retracts her support for Taiwan. 

Michael Schuman in The Atlantic argues that despite the outward appearances of stability and technological prowess, the Chinese Communist Party has led the country into a dead-end in which economic stagnation and political inflexibility will further dim the prospects for regular Chinese citizens.