Chinese Democracy: Some Guns and Some Roses?

By |2022-05-23T11:17:44-10:00May 23rd, 2022|Categories: College, news, Cho, Media, featured|Tags: , , , |

DKI APCSS professor Dr. Sungmin Cho recently appeared on the “All Things Policy” podcast hosted by the Takshashila Institution in India. The title of this episode is Chinese Democracy: Some Guns and Some Roses?  According to the podcast summary: “China has tried to define and project itself as a democracy as opposed to the general conception of China as an authoritarian political system. These attempts seem to be not just to highlight China's democratic system, but also to highlight how different it is from the western conception of democracy. In this episode, Megha Pardhi talks to Dr. Sungmin Cho about [...]

The U.S.-China Power Transition: An assessment of China’s internal view

By |2022-03-28T09:38:52-10:00March 28th, 2022|Categories: College, Faculty Articles, news, Cho|Tags: , , , |

Dr.Sungmin Cho has a new paper titled “The U.S.-China Power Transition: An assessment of China’s internal view” published in the Melbourne Asia Review. According to Cho, “It is vital to understand how Chinese policymakers and analysts view the regional order, whether one agrees with them or not. How do they assess China’s national power and its future trajectory in comparison with the United States? How do the Chinese foreign policy elites view the changing trend of regional order, and why do they see it that way? This article aims to explain China’s internal view of the regional order in the [...]

North Korea Is Becoming an Asset for China 

By |2022-02-15T08:12:41-10:00February 15th, 2022|Categories: Faculty Articles, External Publications, news, Cho|Tags: , , , , |

“North Korea Is Becoming an Asset for China” is a new article by Dr. Sungmin Cho for Foreign Affairs magazine. Co-authored with Oriana Skylar Mastro, the article discusses the latest round of missile testing by North Korea and its potential impact on US alliances with Japan and the Republic of Korea. According to the authors, "North Korea's missile tests are occurring at a time of stark, rising competition between the United States and the Pacific’s other great power: China... Pyongyang’s weapons program was long seen as a liability for Beijing, given the erratic and unpredictable behavior of North Korea’s leaders. [...]

China and North Korea: A New Peak of Comradeship

By |2022-01-05T13:03:10-10:00January 5th, 2022|Categories: Faculty Articles, External Publications, news, Cho|Tags: , |

"China and North Korea: A New Peak of Comradeship" is Dr. Sungmin Cho’s latest commentary made at the invitation of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies. In July 2021, commemorating the 60th anniversary of mutual defense treaty, Chinese President Xi Jinping said bilateral relations between China and North Korea should “unceasingly rise to new levels” in the world “undergoing profound changes unseen in a century.” How can one explain, in Xi Jinping’s own words, China’s “unswerving support” of North Korea in 2021? What events are likely to impact China-North Korea relations in 2022? Dr.Cho offers his answers to these [...]

China’s Gray Zone Operations in the Yellow Sea

By |2021-09-30T16:46:43-10:00September 30th, 2021|Categories: Journal, news|Tags: , |

“China's Gray Zone Operations in the Yellow Sea,” is the title of a paper by Chungjin Jung, for Security Nexus. This paper illustrates the increasing effects the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Gray Zone Activities are having on Japan and Southeast Asian countries, and the need for long-term strategies for an appropriate response. Summary China has carried out gray zone operations in the East and the South China Sea against Japan and Southeast Asian countries and is trying to change the status quo little by little and make it a fait accompli to gain advantages in these sea areas. China's [...]

Canada Can Do Much More With Its Five Eyes Allies To Respond To China And Russia’s Global Threats

By |2021-09-30T08:07:28-10:00September 30th, 2021|Categories: Faculty Articles, External Publications, news, hemmings|Tags: , , |

OTTAWA, ON (September 30, 2021): The international environment is increasingly insecure. Under the leadership of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, China and Russia are attempting to reshape the international system and constrain the liberal democratic West. State competition is changing, in a shift towards deniable, intrusive, and non-military threats against all sectors of society and, as a result, liberal democracies are increasingly looking for collective ways to respond. To meet this growing global challenge, Canada could do much more with the historic Five Eyes grouping that also includes the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. The Five Eyes began primarily as an intelligence-sharing [...]

Why did China engage with Western democracy promotion programs?

By |2021-09-10T11:38:40-10:00September 10th, 2021|Categories: Faculty Articles, External Publications, news, Cho|Tags: , , |

Professor Sungmin Cho’s latest peer-reviewed article entitled “Why Non-Democracy Engages with Western Democracy-Promotion Programs: The China Model,” was recently published by World Politics. Abstract “Between the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s, the Chinese government was distinctly open to the Western offer of democracy-assistance programs. It cooperated with a number of Western organizations to improve the rule of law, village elections, administrative capacity, and civil society in China. Why did the Chinese government engage with democracy promoters who tried to develop these democratic attributes within China? The author argues that the government intended to use Western aid to its advantage. The Chinese [...]

China’s quiet challenges at sea: explaining China’s maritime activities in the Yellow Sea, 2010–2020

By |2021-06-14T13:00:47-10:00June 11th, 2021|Categories: Faculty Articles, External Publications, news, Cho|Tags: , , |

Professor Sungmin Cho’s latest peer-reviewed article entitled China’s quiet challenges at sea: explaining China’s maritime activities in the Yellow Sea, 2010–2020 Abstract The Chinese military activities in the Yellow Sea have visibly increased. Compared to the South or East China Sea, however, China has not escalated tensions to the strategic level by employing paramilitary and nonmilitary tools of influence. The “regional hegemony” thesis can partially explain the increase of China’s military activities at the operational level. But it does not explain why China refrains from posing strategic challenges in the Yellow Sea in the way it does in the South [...]

U.S. Command and Control across the Spectrum of Gray-Zone Operations in the East China Sea

By |2023-09-14T11:14:24-10:00May 25th, 2021|Categories: Journal, news, hemmings, Turvold|Tags: , , |

“U.S. Command and Control across the Spectrum of Gray-Zone Operations in the East China Sea” is a new essay by DKI APCSS professors Dr. John Hemmings and Prof. Wade Turvold published by the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) in its special report, “Murky Waters in the East China Sea Chinese Gray-Zone Operations and U.S.-Japan Alliance Coordination.” The essay examines the role of the U.S. in gray-zone contingencies in the East China Sea in the context of alliance coordination with Japan.

How Beijing Sees Korea

By |2021-05-24T16:37:29-10:00May 24th, 2021|Categories: news, Cho, Media|Tags: , , |

Dr.Sungmin Cho recently joined ChinaTalk for a discussion on the dynamics among China, North and South Koreas. ChinaTalk is an interview-based show  sponsored by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).   In this 40-minute episode, Dr.Cho discusses why North Korea failed to emulate Deng Xiaoping's Opening and reform policies, why China's wealthy and educated youth could be both liberal and nationalistic, and why China used to cooperate with Western organizations that aimed to democratize China." Listen to the Podcast Dr. Cho is a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS) in Honolulu, [...]

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