Publication

This brief provides an overview of how China's intellectual, philosophical and political past all shape the country's approach to achieving its strategic goals today. The author identifies China’s strategic goals as 1) the preservation of the Chinese Communist Party regime; 2) (mainly) economic prosperity; 3) the pursuit of both hard and soft power in the international arena; 4) a peaceful and orderly environment to sustain its reforms and modernization challenges; and 5) championing multi-polarity in the international order. He then explains how China deals with some of the contradictions which condition the country's pursuit of these strategic goals, such as balancing market socialism versus Leninist communist economy in government policy.