Global China: Domestic politics and foreign policy

This installment of the Brookings Foreign Policy series “Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World” helps illuminate China’s domestic trends in law and leadership politics that may inform China’s trajectory.

Making sense of the prospects for a global China requires understanding Xi Jinping’s domestic political standing and policy priorities.

The Chinese Communist Party maintains a dual state and legal system, under which most Chinese people generally enjoy the protection of an increasingly sophisticated body of law. But the party’s resort to extra-legal means in dealing with perceived enemies creates uncertainty over the reliability of the party-state’s legal commitments both at home and abroad.

Rush Doshi argues that China has a longstanding commitment to its current assertive path—and that it did not start with Xi Jinping.

Joseph Torigian explains how Xi Jinping has consolidated power over Chinese foreign policy.

Xi Jinping’s handling of economic policy and U.S.-China relations poses real risks for his domestic standing, argues George Yin.

Erin Baggott Carter contends that there is strong evidence that Xi Jinping could respond to challenges from within through diversions abroad.

China has been aggressively consolidating control over contested territories in the South and East China seas since at least 2006—well before Xi Jinping took power, writes Andrew Chubb.

China seeks to influence developing countries across the globe, in part because of the Chinese Communist Party’s longstanding obsession with preserving its rule, according to David Shullman.

Chinese economic statecraft like the Belt and Road Initiative is sometimes effective, sometimes not, argues Audrye Wong.

Ketian Vivian Zhang details how China uses non-military coercion to pressure other countries.

Under Xi Jinping, China has increased its regional security engagement—Abigail Grace explains what is behind it and what it means.