In 2017, Secretary General Xi Jinping said: "This is an era that will see China move closer to the center of the world stage". The People's Republic of China is indeed at a pivotal moment in its history, gradually acquiring all the components of power and competing with, if not surpassing, the major world powers. This new status is challenging the global balance of power, raising questions and awakening fears. The European Union and its member states are seeking to adapt their position vis-à-vis China, to face its new diplomatic assertiveness, the rise of its military and technological capacities, and to deal with the Sino-American rivalry. However, since Beijing's international policy cannot be dissociated from its domestic context, it is also necessary to analyze the internal political dynamics that dictate foreign policy choices.
Through its research activities, Ifri's Center for Asian Studies aims to provide a better understanding of contemporary China and its position on the world stage.
Senior Research Fellow and Director of Ifri's Center for Asian Studies
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Research Fellow, Center for Asian Studies
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Senior Advisor, Center for Asian Studies
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Like the Gulf monarchies, Israel has strengthened its economic cooperation with China since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, leading to an influx of Chinese capital, whether in Tel Aviv's high-tech sector or in Israel's port infrastructure.
China-Russia cooperation in space has been increasing for the past two decades. This cooperation accelerated after the Crimea crisis in 2014 and culminated with the announcement in 2021 of the joint construction of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).<...>
As the 20th national congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) draws closer, this is an opportune moment to appraise China’s economic achievements over the past decade under President Xi Jinping’s guidance and to identify the challenges the country will have to address during the next five...
The tremendous demographic challenges facing China will not significantly affect the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the immediate future, but will become more problematic in the medium and long term. The rapid aging of the population and the resulting socio-economic imbalances will put...
From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Beijing has adopted an outward posture of neutrality while in fact supporting Moscow.
As China’s political relations with most of the world’s technologically advanced states have worsened, Beijing has put in place the world’s most comprehensive regulatory and administrative system for governing cyberspace.
The idea that Europe has grown dependent on China is now a common refrain, but just how is this notion understood in capitals across the continent?
The second round of the French presidential election on April 24 will decide whether Emmanuel Macron, the incumbent president, or Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far right nationalist party Rassemblement national (national gathering), will become president of the French Republic for the next...
The year 2021 marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Lithuania. Instead of commemorative events and customary lofty rhetoric, the bilateral relationship rapidly plunged to a level rarely seen in either country’s foreign policies...
Quantum physics, a field little known to the general public and relatively difficult to grasp as its laws are counter-intuitive, constitutes nevertheless a critical field of international strategic competition.
Annual conference of Ifri's Center for Asian Studies. The war in Ukraine has marked the return of high-intensity conflict in Europe and represents a profound, structural shift in the region’s strategic environment. It also takes place against a backdrop of a decades-long...
From zero-COVID policies to the property crisis, what are the challenges facing China's economy, and what a new era of slower Chinese growth will mean for the global economy and geopolitical dynamics?
How India sees France. A conference with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India.
The era of hyper globalization is now transforming into an age of geoeconomics, where trade and economic relations are increasingly conditioned by national security concerns. What impact will this shift have on the regional trade architecture and economic strategies in East Asia? <...>
Since 1983, the QUAD gathers every year, the SWP, RAND Corporation, Chatham House and Ifri. The QUAD was set up during the Euromissile crisis and brings together European and American diplomats, military officers, journalists and research fellow to debate on current geopolitical issues.<...>
The United States is the linchpin of Taiwan’s security. Under Donald Trump’s presidency, as tensions with the People’s Republic of China grew, the US increasingly took steps to signal ever more clearly its commitment to supporting and defending Taiwan, a trend that seems to have continued...
President Xi has surprised both the world and Chinese stakeholders in announcing the carbon neutrality objective by 2060. Yet the first announcements on China’s new Five Year Plan give little hope for a substantial policy adjustment in order to peak greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years...
As its firms become more competitive, China is increasingly well positioned to define the standards that will shape the industries of the future.
Since the end of 2019, more than 20 Notes Verbales have been submitted to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf regarding the claims in the South China Sea (SCS).
As part of the Central and Southern Africa Observatory, a research partnership between Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center and the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS) of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, Ifri is hosting a series of three research webinars...
Europe has been almost entirely dependent on China for critical minerals for years, but a newly unearthed million-tonne deposit in Sweden could help reduce that reliance
The decline of the Marxist utopia and the collapse of traditional ethics have created a moral and spiritual vacuum, forging a path for religions, notes Asia specialist Claude Meyer.
Japan has been investing in the continent for longer than China and applies international standards to its infrastructure financing, analysts said. Its pockets may not be as deep, but its support of good governance and democratic principles makes it a tempting development partner for...
Paris and Beijing have agreed to build infrastructure projects in Africa, South East Asia and Eastern Europe. But will this help shine light on China’s opaque foreign investments? Or just give the appearance of doing so?
France is eager to prevent the crisis from spiralling further as it recognises it is in its national interest, and President Macron’s favour, to end it. But damage has been done, writes Ahmed Aboudouh.
The United States is the linchpin of Taiwan’s security. Under Donald Trump’s presidency, as tensions with the People’s Republic of China grew, the US increasingly took steps to signal...
Recent months have seen the United States and its allies step up their assertiveness toward China, with support voiced for Taiwan, a new deal to provide Australia with nuclear submarines and a new European strategy for increased presence in the Indo-Pacific, according to the Associated Press.<...>
China's far-reaching ambition for a permanent presence in outer space began in earnest on Thursday with the launch of its first crew bound for a new space station.
Since the end of 2019, more than 20 Notes Verbales have been submitted to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf regarding the claims in the South China Sea (SCS).
At the start of the pandemic, Europe and China helped one other. Then the mood changed.
