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

Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording

This episode of Asia Insight complements an ongoing NBR initiative examining Indo-Pacific approaches to digital regulations and competition policy, with this episode focusing on Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) enforcement activities targeting U.S. firms, featuring NBR Senior Director of Research and Programs Doug Strub in conversation with NBR Advisor Tami Overby and NBR Nonresident Fellow Nigel Cory.

Nigel Cory is a Nonresident Fellow at NBR and is a Director with Crowell Global Advisors.

Tami Overby is a member of the Board of Advisors at NBR and is a Partner at DGA Group Government Relations.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at 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 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

Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording

Recommended additional readings

On this episode of Asia Insight, NBR Senior Director of Research and Programs Doug Strub sits down with NBR Advisor Meredith Miller and SAFE Senior Policy Analyst Zoe Oysul to discuss U.S. and Indonesian critical minerals strategies and opportunities and challenges for the two countries to work together within the larger geopolitical context.

Meredith Miller is a member of the Board of Advisors at NBR and is a Senior Advisor at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.

Zoe Oysul is a Senior Policy Analyst at SAFE’s Center for Critical Minerals Strategy.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at 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 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

Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording

Recommended additional readings

In this episode of Asia Insight, we explore a recent NBR research project that examined the cumulative impact of three trends—the evolution of the Indo-Pacific geopolitical landscape, recurring questions about U.S. alliance commitments, and domestic political debates on nuclear armament—on the sustainability of U.S. extended deterrence and nuclear restraint in Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Zack Cooper is the project’s Principal Investigator, and he is also a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Bee Yun Jo is a Research Fellow in the Center for Security Strategy at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.

Lavina Lee is Director of the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney in Australia.

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

This episode of Asia Insight was recorded directly following NBR’s annual Energy Security Workshop in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2025. NBR advisor and Energy Security Program research director Mikkal Herberg hosts a conversation with Philip Andrews-Speed, Kurt Glaubitz, and Ken Koyama.

The four discuss takeaways from the workshop’s presentations on Asia’s LNG (liquified natural gas) landscape and the implications for regional energy and economic security, while also delving deeper into areas they plan to explore further ahead of NBR’s annual Energy Security Program report release in late-2025.

Philip Andrews-Speed is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Kurt Glaubitz is the Co-Founder of the Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association and Former Corporate Affairs General Manager for the Chevron Corporation, Asia Pacific Exploration and Production.

Mikkal Herberg is a member of NBR’s Board of Advisors and the Research Director of NBR’s Energy Security Program.

Ken Koyama is Senior Managing Director and Chief Economist in charge of the Research Strategy Unit at The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan.

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.

Documenting China's Borderlands, led by NBR Distinguished Fellow, China Studies Nadège Rolland, 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.

This research effort is the second phase of NBR's Mapping China’s Strategic Space project (https://strategicspace.nbr.org/) which defined strategic space as a realm vital to the pursuit of China’s national economic and security objectives and to the enduring survival of the Chinese state.

The audio documentaries presented in this forthcoming Asia Insight miniseries are a part of a larger set of products from this research effort, which will include written publications, regional conferences, and a virtual dashboard visualizing key data on China's engagement with its borderland neighbors. The dashboard will be publicly available starting July 28, 2025.