The Jamestown Foundation's latest China Brief is up:

1. The Unocal Bid: China's Treasure hunt of the century. This gives an overview of China's energy security challenges, but also contains an interesting overview of what Chinese media have been saying about the Unocal bid by CNOOC.

2. Sino-Singaporean relations back on track. After a couple of spats, China and the Lion City are trying to make up. The article touches on Singapore's role in ASEAN but omits an important aspect of this relationship: Singapore's stewardship of the Straits of Malacca, a crucial shipping route for oil and goods for China.

3. The Dragon Breathes Fire: Chinese power projection. A good read. The PLA has realised it needs to develop the means to project its power, especially towards Taiwan and the South China Sea. The article also mentions the PLA has little chance, as it currently stands, against Taiwan's coastal defenses and air force.

4. Growing Sino-Japanese tensions and the risk to East Asian security. The must read of the bunch. The introduction should whet your appetite:

It is always hard to manage the rise of a revisionist great power, especially when it has an authoritarian government. Last century, for example, Germany wanted too much too soon. Similarly, today’s China wants too much too soon, and China’s leaders are miscalculating ― not least in relation to Japan.