Will China’s new foreign policy dream team be the key to achieving its global ambitions?
Beijing’s top leadership is packed full of highly trained foreign affairs experts hand-picked to help deliver on President Xi Jinping’s global goals
After five years in office, President Xi Jinping has put together a team of top foreign-policy makers with substantial experience in handling the West, especially the US, to achieve China’s growing global ambitions.
Apart from Xi himself, the leading figure is Wang Qishan, the former Communist Party anti-graft tsar who is Xi’s most trusted ally.
According to several Beijing-based sources, Wang is highly likely to be named vice-president soon and take on a large foreign affairs portfolio in the midst of a major overhaul of the country’s diplomatic hierarchy.
“Wang will play a key role in foreign affairs work in the years to come, especially on thorny issues involving Sino-US relations,” a source close to the leadership told the South China Morning Post. He declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Wang’s surprising comeback, just a few months after he retired from the party’s apex of power, is expected to give a boost to China’s diplomatic decision-making at a critical juncture, especially amid emerging strategic rivalry with the United States.
There have been signs hinting at Wang’s new role, with sources saying he recently met US and Japanese officials in Beijing.
Unlike previous top leadership line-ups, the new Politburo Standing Committee announced after the party’s national congress in October is packed with foreign affairs experts, including outgoing Vice-Premier Wang Yang and Wang Huning, an international affairs scholar turned party theorist.