Diplomats in Camouflage: A Dataset of China’s Military-Diplomatic Engagements

Dataset paper: Foster, Noel, Zenobia T. Chan, and Jackie S.H. Wong. 2026. "Diplomats in Camouflage: A Dataset of China’s Military-Diplomatic Engagements." Journal of Conflict Resolution, July 31. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027261473786. This dataset documents over 2,500 publicly reported, senior-level military-diplomatic engagements between China and foreign states from January 2000 to April 2023. It records face-to-face meetings involving members and vice chairpersons of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission. Engagements are classified as foreign delegations received in China, overseas visits by Chinese military leaders, meetings held through regional or international organizations, and defense or security forums. The meeting-level data include dates, locations, participating Chinese and foreign officials, partner countries, engagement types, and unique meeting and trip identifiers. The dataset also codes the publicly stated substance of each engagement, including military education, exchanges, exercises, peacekeeping, counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance, and other forms of security cooperation. Observations were compiled from four authoritative Chinese-language sources: Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, People’s Daily (Overseas Edition), and People’s Liberation Army Daily. Each observation includes a link or page number to the original source and standardized country identifiers to facilitate replication and integration with other datasets.