Jing Zhao

Jonas Parello-Plesner

European Council on Foreign Relations

François Godement

"China's once-a-decade leadership change is currently underway in Beijing. The new leaders will take power at a crucial time for China, as it enters the third stage of its development since the revolution. How they deal with the challenges ahead will not just shape China, but Europe and the entire world. Mark Leonard has drawn together a unique collection of essays from leading Chinese intellectuals and thinkers, examining the choices that it faces with its economy, its political system and its global role. After Mao's political revolution ('China 1.0') and Deng Xiaoping's economic revolution ('China 2.0'), Mark calls this 'China 3.0': Now that it is becoming more affluent, how does China deal with growing inequalities, rebalancing its economy and its increasing exposure to the global economy? How does the Communist Party retain stability, with increasing friction within Chinese society and half a billion 'netizens' active on the web? China can no longer keep a low profile on the world stage so also needs to decide how to use its power and deal with grievances with neighbours like Japan and South Korea.

China 3.0

China has long adhered to a principle of �non-interference� in other states� affairs. However, as more of its companies have been investing in projects overseas, and millions of its nationals are travelling abroad, Beijing is finding itself progressively involved in other countries � through the need to protect these interests and citizens. During the turmoil of the Arab Spring in 2011, China was compelled to evacuate more than 35,000 Chinese workers and expatriates from Libya, and later it led the hunt for the killers of 13 Chinese sailors in the Golden Triangle region of the Mekong River. In 2015, Beijing sent a combat battalion to join the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, where it has huge oil ventures. Its plans to construct a New Silk Road will mean new commercial endeavours to protect in Pakistan. The shift in Chinese foreign policy towards a more interventionist approach in protecting nationals abroad has not been the result of grand strategy, but an adjustment to unfolding events. The large risk appetite of state-owned Chinese business is inexorably drawing the Chinese state into security hotspots, and as China becomes a great power its people are openly calling on their government to protect compatriots caught in crises overseas, including via military means. While much attention has focused on Beijing�s increasingly assertive behaviour in disputed Asian seas, this book highlights another equally important area of change, with potentially far-reaching consequences for international security.

Jonas Parello-Plesner

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