China's Grand Strategy under Xi Jinping: Reassurance, Reform, and Resistance

Summary

While China’s grand strategy under Xi Jinping is clearly distinctive, it does not fundamentally break with the grand strategy that Chinese leaders have embraced since the early 1990s—one that aims to realize China’s “dream of national rejuvenation.” China’s grand strategy under Xi consists of three main elements: (1) repeatedly reassuring others about the benign intentions of a rising China, (2) actively promoting reform of the existing international order, and (3) resolutely resisting challenges to the country’s core interests as defined by the Chinese Communist Party.