ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a discussion of the national security challenges confronting the Xi Jinping Administration and the rationale behind perceived Chinese assertiveness; the People’s Liberation Army’s perspectives of these world issues, with a focus on recent United States (US) military developments in the region and especially the intensifying territorial disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea. The international and regional security environment that China’s fifth generation leadership inherited in late 2012 was a deteriorating one. Chinese military analyses suggest that the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement between the US and the Philippines, for instance, provides the US Navy and Air Force access to bases and facilities in the Philippines, and could embolden Manila to confront Beijing. The era when China’s foreign policy could be controlled and managed by a small group of leaders and officials in the foreign ministry is long gone.