China's Xi Signals Initial Priorities: Part II

Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series on the policy priorities and initial reforms of China's new leadership. Part I examined domestic policy. Part II examines foreign policy.

While signs indicate that China's new leadership will continue with its agenda of gradual reforms to domestic policy, in the foreign policy sphere, initial signals have been less encouraging. The external challenges facing senior officials in Beijing involve assuaging the concerns of a far greater range of constituents than on domestic issues. Here, so far, the evidence is consistent with the analysis that China's foreign policy is becoming more aggressive and overtly nationalistic, and increasingly so in recent months. ...