Essays
The Dandong Chess Board: Trade, Anti-Corruption, and Russian Visitors
What are the ambitions of Chinese Communist Party cadre in Dandong in opening up further to North Korea and Russia? And a local anti-corruption update.
North Korea’s Leap Forward in Air Defense Modernization
This article analyzes the evolution of North Korea’s air defense capabilities since 2017, focusing on recent advancements and their geopolitical implications.
China’s Ground Game in Dandong and North Korea
As Sino-North Korean bilateral relations intensify, Adam Cathcart looks at China’s ground game in Pyongyang and Dandong, with a focus on business.
Aura of Criminality: Perspectives of Empire in Japan’s East Asian Conquests, 1932-1945
In the second part of this series, Jessica Pitcher examines the relationship between Japanese imperial authorities in China and the practice of narcotics trafficking, which “weakened” the inhabitants of the occupied territories while filling government coffers in Manchukuo.
Narcotics, Smuggling and Sex: Perspectives of Empire in Japan’s East Asian Conquests, 1932-1945, Part One
Empires are often described in grand and abstract terms, but they are also an everyday phenomenon, where the authority of the colonizing state is impressed upon its subjects in myriad ways. Here, Jessica Pitcher examines the role of sex trafficking in the everyday conception of the Japanese empire in Korea.