Xi’s leadership, despite some internal dissent, no longer follows this approach and, instead, seeks to bolster the PRC’s international profile through various tools of its national power.
Over time, the PRC has characterized strategic competition in terms of a rivalry among powerful nation states, most importantly the United States, as well as a clash of opposing ideological systems. Speaking to the CCP Central Committee in 2013, Xi remarked that the CCP needed to “appreciate” that “developed Western nations” would continue to possess “real, long-term advantages” over the PRC in the economic, technological, and military domains. Xi argued that the PRC would need to “prepare for a long period of cooperation and of conflict between these two social systems in each of these domains.”
The PRC’s Views on Sovereignty, Security, and Development Interests Related to Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan. The PRC is concerned that perceived separatist elements in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet are pushing for independence, buoyed by so-called “external forces.” The PRC views this as an unacceptable threat to its sovereignty and stability, imperiling its national security and national development.
The PRC is implementing its interpretation of “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong and Macau, wherein individuals who Beijing deems “patriots” administer those regions respectively, thereby ensuring “law-based governance.” The PRC is investing in the Guangdong-Hong KongMacao “Greater Bay” development zone, expanding growth of high-tech industry from Guangdong into areas previously used for agriculture and fishing on the outskirts of Hong Kong and Macau. This will integrate them more tightly into the PRC’s overall economic development.
The PRC has continued efforts to systematically dilute, control, and eventually assimilate local cultures in Xinjiang and Tibet into PRC society. After two German corporations began pulling out of joint ventures in Xinjiang citing discovery of forced labor and other human rights abuses at plants, Foreign Minister Wang Yi called the charges “made up lies” intended to prevent PRC’s development and revitalization. In more sparsely populated Tibet, Beijing has accelerated its efforts at assimilating the local population into PRC society. In November 2023, Beijing released a white paper on Tibet calling for increasing use of the Han Chinese term “Xizang” to refer to the province, which has now been adopted by much of PRC state media.
In March 2024, responding to questions at a press conference at the National People’s Congress (NPC), Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed Taiwan’s January presidential elections as “just local elections in one part of China” that did not change the fact that Taiwan was part of the PRC. Characterizing support for Taiwan independence as a threat to peace, Wang Yi stated that the PRC would continue to strive for peaceful reunification but that the PRC would never allow Taiwan to be separated from the motherland.
Perceptions of the External Security Environment. In the past two years, President Xi presented his thoughts on the PRC’s strategic environment on multiple occasions. For example, Xi regularly warns of “growing risks” and stresses that the PRC is on the brink of “changes unseen in a century” but that the PRC will benefit from a “profound adjustment in the international balance of power.” In his speech at the 100th anniversary of the CCP in 2022, Xi asserted that, as the world experienced “once-in-a-century changes,” the PRC had to adopt “a holistic approach to national security that balances development and security imperatives” and implement “the national rejuvenation.” Speaking to a group of delegates attending the 14th National Committee of the
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Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
