ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of China's rise and its implications for regional and global power order. This is followed by an analysis of how Beijing's foreign and national security policy making is increasingly affected by the growing number of actors even as it has to confront the increasingly complex external environments. China's rise as a major power in East Asia within a short span of three decades is unprecedented in international history. A recent National Intelligence Council report predicts that China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy in a decade. China's growing power is affecting the regional and global geo-strategic environments just as they in turn impose constraints and offer opportunities for Beijing. The last few years have witnessed ostensible changes in the ways in which Beijing conducts its foreign policy. It is becoming more assertive and unequivocal in both voicing and defending what it perceives as core national interests.
