Asia Insight

2026 marks 20 years of Asia Policy, NBR’s peer-reviewed scholarly journal presenting policy-relevant academic research on the Asia-Pacific that draws clear and concise conclusions useful to today’s policymakers. This Asia Insight episode features NBR President Michael Wills in conversation with two members of the Asia Policy Editorial Board, Dr. Mike Green and Dr. Jessica Chen Weiss, on what bridging the gap between the academic and policy worlds looks like in practice and what it takes for research to truly inform policymaking on Asia today. Mike Green is Professor and Chief Executive Officer at the United States Studies Centre in Sydney, Australia. He is a member of the Asia Policy Editorial Board at NBR. Jessica Chen Weiss is the David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies and the inaugural Faculty Director of the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Asia Policy Editorial Board at NBR. Michael Wills is President of NBR.

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR. Episode Four: The Great Wall of Villages Since 2016, China has been building or refurbishing several hundreds of so-called “xiaokang (well-off) villages” along its Borderlands, complete with new infrastructure and an increased security presence. Some of these villages have been built on Bhutan’s sovereign territory. This fourth episode trails the strategic motives and the unfolding development of China’s border villages revitalization campaign. With contributions from Japneet Kaur (Center of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar University, India), Professor James Leibold (La Trobe University, Australia) and Professor Robert Barnett (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Lau China Institute, King’s College, United Kingdom). Materials cited or referenced in the recording “South China Sea: What’s China’s Plan for Its ‘Great Wall of Sand’?” BBC, July 14, 2020 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53344449. Muyi Xiao, Agnes Chang, “China’s Great Wall of Villages,” New York Times, August 8, 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/10/world/asia/china-border-villages.html. Robert Barnett, “Forceful Diplomacy: China’s Cross-Border Villages in Bhutan,” Turquoise Roof Bulletin, October 15, 2024 https://turquoiseroof.org/forceful-diplomacy-china-cross-border-villages-in-bhutan/. Japneet Kaur, Devendra Kumar, Jabin T. Jacob, “Beyond the Military Prism: China’s Development Objectives in Xiaokang Villages in Tibet Autonomous Region,” Shiv Nadar University Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies Occasional Paper no.4 (February 2025) https://snu.edu.in/centres/centre-of-excellence-for-himalayan-studies/research/beyond-the-military-prism-chinas-development-objectives-in-xiaokang-villages-in-tibet-autonomous-region/. Sun Chunri [孙春日] “Population Loss in the Border Areas between China and North Korea, and Countermeasures：A Case Study of Yanbian Korean Ethnic Minority Autonomous Prefecture” [中朝边境地区人口流失及对策 – 以延边朝鲜族自治州为列] Journal of Northern Minzu University no.93 (2010). Yang Minghong [样明洪] and Wang Zhoubo [王周博] “Types, Causes and Governance of the ‘Hollowing Out’ of China’s Land Border Regions” [我国陆地边境地区 ‘空心化’ 的类型、成因与治理] Journal of Sichuan Normal University 47 no.6 (2020). “Xi Jinping Delivers an Important Speech at the Second Xinjiang Work Forum” [习近平在第二次中央新疆工作谈会上发表重要讲话] People’s Daily, May 30, 2014. Owen Lattimore, The Inner Asian Frontiers of China, 1940. Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording 边境小康村 bianjing xiaokang cun: border areas moderately-prosperous (or well-off) villages 成都山地所 Chengdu shandi suo: Chengdu Mountain Institute (a research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) 三农问题 sannong wenti: “Three rural problems”(nongmin 农民rural people, nongcun 农村rural areas, nongye 农业rural production) 兴边副民行动 xingbian fumin xingdong: “Border Revitalization and Prosperous Residents Program” (a State campaign aimed at boosting economic development along China’s borderlands launched in 1998) 治国必治边、治边先稳藏 zhiguo bi zhibian, zhibian xian wen zang: “To govern the country, one must govern the borders; to govern the borders, one must first stabilize Tibet” (Xi Jinping addressing a delegation of officials from the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 2013 https://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2013/0902/c64102-22771651.html) 空心化 kongxinhua: hollowing out 神圣国土守护者 shensheng guotu shouhuzhe: “Guardians of the sacred lands” 中华民族 zhonghua minzu: Chinese nation

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR. Episode Three: The Opening-Up/Securitization Paradox Since the early 1990s, China’s borderlands have played a crucial role in the central government’s "opening-up" program. However, starting in the mid-2010s, at the same time as the Belt and Road Initiative was supposed to accelerate China’s opening-up to the rest of the world, Beijing also began to harden the security of its borders – a trend intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic. This third episode examines the tension between prioritizing openness and maintaining security. With contributions from Professor Victor Konrad (Carleton University, Canada), and Professor Alessandro Rippa (University of Oslo, Norway). Materials cited or referenced in the recording Zhuang Rui [庄芮], Song Huike [宋荟柯], Zhang Xiaojing [张晓静], "Strategic Considerations on China’s Border Opening-Up: Historical Logic and Forward Direction" [我国沿边开放战略思考：历史逻辑与推进方向] Chinese Economy and Trade, no.7 (2021). "More Indulgence, My Dear Friend? Why China Is Grudgingly Mending Ties with North Korea," The Economist, September 27, 2025. Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording Xibu dakaifa 西部大开发 Great Development of the West / Great Western Development Recommended additional readings Zhiding Hu and Victor Konrad, "Repositioning Security Spaces of Exclusion, Exception, and Integration in China-Southeast Asia Borderlands," Regions & Cohesion 11, no. 2 (Summer 2021). Thomas Ptak, Jussi P. Laine, Zhiding Hu, Yuli Liu, Victor Konrad, Martin van der Velde, "Understanding Borders Through Dynamic Processes: Capturing Relational Motion from South-West China’s Radiation Centre," Territory, Politics, Governance 10, no.2 (2022). Alessandro Rippa, Borderland Infrastructures: Trade, Development, and Control in Western China (Amsterdam University Press, 2020). Alessandro Rippa, "Mapping the Margins of China’s Global Ambitions: Economic Corridors, Silk Roads, and the End of Proximity in the Borderlands," Eurasian Geography and Economics 61, no.1 (2020). Zhang Zheren [张哲人] Li Wei [李慰] "Comprehensively Optimizing the Regional Opening-Up" [全面优化区域开放布局] Hongqi no.16 (2023). Guo Yinhong [郭垠宏] Song Tao [宋涛] Sun Man [孙曼] "The Functional Evolution and Temporal Division of China’s Border Regions in the Context of the Security-Development-Opening Up Nexus" [安全、发展与开放关联下的中国边境地区功能演化及时段划分] Geographical Research 42, no.10 (October 2023).

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR. Episode Two: A Hundred Years of CCP Borderlands Policies The Chinese Communist Party’s borderlands policies fluctuated over time since its founding, alternating between periods of gradual integration and forced assimilation. Regardless of the methods used, the Party’s goal has remained the same: to meld all these regions and their people into a coherent national whole. This second episode examines how the notions of Borderlands, of nation-building, and of ethnic policies have been intimately intertwined throughout the hundred years of CCP existence. With contributions from Professor Benno Weiner (Carnegie Mellon University), Professor Robert Barnett (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Lau China Institute, King’s College), and Professor James Leibold (La Trobe University). Materials cited or referenced in the recording Benno Weiner, The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020) Andrew Martin Fisher, The Disempowered Development of Tibet in China: A Study in the Economics of Marginalization (Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2014) Fei Xiaotong [费孝通], The Chinese Nation’s Diversity to Unity Model [中华民族多元一体格局] (Beijing: Central University for Nationalities Press, 1989) Ernest Renan, “What is a Nation?” (speech delivered at the Sorbonne University, Paris, on March 11, 1882) Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording Minzu 民族 nation, nationality(ies), ethnic group(s) Shaoshu minzu 少数民族 ethnic minorities Minzu tuanjie 民族团结 ethnic/national unity Minzu gongzuo 民族工作 ethnic policy work / nation building work Duoyuanyiti 多元一体 diversity within unity / plurality and unity / multiple origins, one body / from diversity towards unity Zhonghua minzu 中华民族 Chinese nation Zhulao 铸牢 to forge Zhuhun 铸魂 to cast souls Zhonghua minzu gongtongti yishi 中华民族共同体意识 collective consciousness of the Chinese nation / a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation Recommended additional readings Uradyn E. Bulag, “Good Han, Bad Han: The Moral Parameters of Ethnopolitics in China,” in Thomas Mullaney et.al. (Eds.) Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation, and Identity of China’s Majority (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012) Vanessa Frangville, “‘Unity Within Diversity’: The Chinese Communist Party’s Construction of the Chinese Nation,” in Jérôme Doyon et.al. (Eds.) The Chinese Communist Party: A 100-Year Trajectory (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2024) James Leibold, “Toward A Second Generation of Ethnic Policies?” Jamestown China Brief 12(13) July 7, 2012 James Leibold, “Ethnic Policy in China: Is Reform Inevitable?” East-West Center Policy Studies 68, 2013 Benno Weiner, “‘This Absolutely Is Not a Hui Rebellion!’: The Ethnopolitics of Great Nationality Chauvinism in Early Maoist China,” Twentieth-Century China 48(3) 2023

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR. Episode One: From Empire to Nation When you look at the People’s Republic of China’s map today, you look roughly at the map of the Qing empire - with the notable exceptions of outer Mongolia, Taiwan, and portions of Siberia. Two hundred years ago, the Qing’s borderlands included the Manchu, Tibetan, Hmong, Mongol and Hui (Turkic-speaking Muslim populations of the western regions). Today, twenty neighbors share a land or a maritime border with China. In this first episode, with the help of Professor Nicola Di Cosmo (Institute of Advanced Study) and Maria Adele Carrai (NYU Shanghai), we travel back in time to better understand how the imperial borderlands have been integrated within China’s national territory at the turn of the 20th century. Materials cited in the recording Joseph W. Esherick, How the Qing Became China, in. Esherick et. al. (Eds) Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) Maria Adele Carrai, Sovereignty in China: A Genealogy of a Concept since 1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)

The project Documenting China's Borderlands is led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR. The project investigates how China invests in, engages with, and deepens its presence within its land and maritime border neighbors in an attempt to reshape its immediate periphery. In this introductory episode hosted by NBR President Michael Wills, Rolland discusses what sparked this research effort, how the project defines China's borderlands, which areas of Chinese statecraft will be examined, and what our listeners can ultimately expect from this forthcoming Asia Insight miniseries. The virtual dashboard mentioned in the conversation will be publicly available starting July 28, 2025.