East Asia

Washington, D.C., June 28, 2019 - A long-standing mutual security treaty between Japan and the United States commits each country to undertake significant military and additional obligations for the benefit of the other, according to declassified records posted today by the nongovernmental National Security Archive as the G-20 meets in Osaka, Japan. The documents provide background for understanding the current U.S.-Japan security alliance, long seen by politicians on all sides in the U.S.

Today the National Security Archive publishes a special exhibit on the 30th anniversary of the massacre at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, 4 June 1989.  To mark an event that decisively shaped contemporary China, the National Security Archive is republishing three documentary E-books that appeared on previous anniversaries, in 1999, 2001, and 2014.  The declassified documents demonstrate that U.S.

Washington, D.C., June 27, 2019 – Recently declassified U.S. documents posted to mark the 60th anniversary year of the Dalai Lama’s flight out of Tibet depict sharp divisions among Chinese authorities over how to cope with the contested region and conclude that Beijing had “badly mismanaged” its policies and brought “disaster” to the majority of Tibetans.  The documents – a series of State Department cables – cover an important turning point in the global Cold War, 1979-1980.

Washington, D.C., April 10, 2019 — South Korea’s bid to acquire a nuclear weapons capability posed a complex challenge to the Ford administration during the mid-1970s, according to recently declassified documents posted today by the National Security Archive at The George Washington University. 

Washington D.C., February 26, 2019 – Prior U.S. administrations from both political parties wrestled intensively with complex security, economic, and diplomatic challenges in trying to rein in successive North Korean dictators’ nuclear ambitions, a review of declassified documentation makes clear. Today, the National Security Archive at The George Washington University presents an array of records from the Nixon, Bush 41, and Clinton administrations that describe the many concerns and tests that have confronted U.S. policymakers and negotiators alike.

Washington, D.C., February 12, 2019 – The incoming Reagan administration strongly supported Japan’s interest in reprocessing nuclear fuel for producing plutonium and chose to pull back from President Jimmy Carter’s policy of restraint, according to declassified State Department telegrams and other materials posted today by the nongovernmental National Security Archive. 

On January 15, 2019, the US Defense Intelligence Agency released its latest edition of the China Military Power report. Among other points, the report discussed China’s reformed command-and-control structure built upon 21^st Century information technology and the reorganization of its information warfare capabilities under the People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force. To accompany the DIA’s report, this posting highlights congressional testimony and official documents related to Chinese use of cyberspace.

Washington, D.C., January 10, 2019 – From the late 1960s until the late 1980s, U.S. government officials worried that Taiwanese leaders might make a “fundamental decision” to develop nuclear weapons. Documents published today for the first time by the National Security Archive illustrate Washington’s efforts to keep tabs on military and scientific research and to intervene when they believed that Taiwan’s nuclear R&D had gone too far.

On May 13, President Trump announced on Twitter that he was working with President Xi Jinping of China to assist the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. This announcement surprised many in the national security community as the US Government has in the past claimed that devices made by ZTE, as well as other Chinese telecom firms such as Huawei, are used by the Chinese Government to conduct surveillance.

In light of significant recent developments on the Korean Peninsula, this week’s brief highlights North Korean cyber-operations. While Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program has drawn the most attention recently, North Korea’s cyber capabilities also represent a significant asymmetric capability that has been relied upon both to disrupt enemies of the Kim family as well as produce sources of funding through cyber-enabled crime.