This CRS report discusses policy issues regarding military-to-mliitary contacts with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and provides a record of contacts since 1993. The United States suspended military contacts with China and imposed sanctions on arms sales in response to the Tiananmen Crackdown in 1989. In 1993, the Clinton Administration began to re-engage the PRC leadership up to the highest level and including China's military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Renewed military exchanges with the PLA have not regained the closeness reached in the 1980s, when U.S.-PRC strategic cooperation against the Soviet Union included U.S. arms sales to China. Issues for Congress include whether the current Administration under President Bush has complied with legislation overseeing dealings with the PLA and has determined a program of contacts with the PLA that advances a prioritized list of U.S. security interests.

This article uses 41 Landsat images between 1988 and 2016 to calculate the normalized difference vegetation indices (NVDIs) of the wetland vegetation at Xitugou (XTG) and Wowachi (WWC) inside the Dunhuang Yangguan National Nature Reserve in northwest China in order to assess the impacts of climate change on wetland vegetation.

This report is designed to provide Congress with a perspective on the contemporary political system of China, the only Communist Party-led authoritarian state in the G-20 grouping of major economies. China's Communist Party dominates state and society in China, is committed to maintaining a permanent monopoly on power, and is intolerant of those who question its right to rule. The report opens with a brief overview of China's leading political institutions, followed by an introduction to distinct features of China's formal political. The second half of the report is devoted to detailed discussion of China's formal political structures. Also discussed are other political actors who are playing a role in influencing policy debates. The report concludes with a discussion of prospects for political reform.