From Will Edwards, The Cipher Brief: “Beijing has slowly and inexorably added to its South China Sea claims—adding missile defense systems and airplane hangars to islands reclaimed from the sea—while dismissing the International Court’s ruling that China’s “Nine-Dash Line” is invalid and does not represent a legitimate territorial claim. For China, this year has been characterized by economic strains and opportunities, growing regional tensions, and at the center of it all, the power consolidation of President Xi Jinping.”
Xi’s Power Play Foreshadows Historic Transformation of How China Is Ruled
From Jeremy Page & Lingling Wei, Wall Street Journal: “China’s Communist Party elite was craving a firm hand on the tiller when it chose Xi Jinping for the nation’s top job in 2012. Over the previous decade, President Hu Jintao’s power-sharing approach had led to policy drift, factional strife and corruption. The party’s power brokers got what they wanted—and then some.”
Trump’s Sanity on Nuclear Strategy
From Medium: “Ignore the hysteria from the choice “experts” the media is eager to quote about the president’s-elect’s recent statement on nuclear weapons. Donald Trump is absolutely right to say “the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” as he did via tweet on Thursday. Arms controllers immediately condemned his remarks and accused him of flirting with an arms race. Unmoved by the wave of condemnation, he doubled down on his position and said during an interview with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.””