"China's approval process for inbound foreign direct investment drives many of the headline economic issues currently being discussed between China and its trading partners, as well as internally within China."

Department of the Treasury Assistant Secretary Marisa Lago delivered these remarks at the Seminar on the U.S. Regulatory and Institutional Environment for Chinese Foreign Direct Investment on September 25, 2013.

The following discussion questions, essay questions, in-class activities, homework assignments, and supplementary resources are designed to help educators use the "China's Maritime Disputes" InfoGuide in the classroom.

In a section of this week's "Saturday Essay" in the Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Economy says that China has been critical of the United States' Syria policy, hoping to highlight U.S. weakness and signal the onset of a power transition in the international system. However, she argues, China's observations about U.S. indecisiveness and Russian leadership only serve to emphasize China's inability to find its own diplomatic legs.

There is almost never a time when people do not worry about war between major powers. The history here is not a happy one. But there are good reasons to expect a better outcome in the 21st century—as long as both sides are alert and careful.

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"Criminal justice has been the weakest link of China's legal system, which, despite constitutional and legislative protections of the right to defence, has in practice rarely allowed defendants adequate opportunity to question prosecution witnesses and rebut their claims," writes Jerome A. Cohen, with respect to Bo Xilai's trial.

The unusual trial of Bo Xilai and China's crackdown on both corruption and press freedom reveal a confused and conflicted leadership, says CFR's Jerome Cohen.

Joshua Kurlantzick analyzes the Chinese economic slowdown, the impact of the slowdown on China's state capitalist companies, and the implications for China's regional power.

Steven A. Tananbaum Senior Fellow for International Economics Robert Kahn analyzes implications of the recent slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Spanning from the Singapore and Malacca straits to the Strait of Taiwan, the South China Sea is one of the world's most hotly disputed bodies of water. China lays claim to nearly the entire sea, overlapping with the maritime claims of Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. With sovereign territory, natural resources, and national pride at stake, this dispute threatens to destabilize the region and even draw the United States into a conflict.

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Jerome A. Cohen assesses China's recent criminal proceedings and observes a lack of de facto progress.

Michael Spence writes that slowing growth puts Chinese authorities in the tricky position of shifting their economy from a growth model based heavily on public investment-led growth to a growth model that mixes more domestic consumption with higher-yielding forms of investment.

With a slowing economy, China's continued growth will largely depend on Beijing's policy decisions, says CFR's Robert Kahn.

"Relations with Russia and China deserve to be given priority," according to Leslie H. Gelb and Dmitri K. Simes.

"Many analysts believe that the financial system represents a major vulnerability for China's economic development, whereas others, equally respected, think that the financial system is adapting effectively to China's more developed status and will continue to provide the necessary fuel for the rest of the economy."

Joshua Kurlantzick assesses China's economy.

China's new ambassador to the United States (and a rising star in Beijing) sets out his vision for U.S.-Chinese relations, discusses whether China is a revisionist power, and how it plans to deal with cyber security -- and Japan.

Tensions between China and Japan are rising, but an economic version of mutual deterrence is preserving the uneasy status quo. Put simply, China needs to buy Japanese products as much as Japan needs to sell them.

Given that Chinese counterfeiting has benefits as well as costs, and considering China's historical resistance to Western pressure, trying to push China to change its approach to intellectual property law is not worth the political and diplomatic capital the United States is spending on it.