Two Day National Conference: Xi Jinping’s Third Term: Implications for Global Order & India

Click here to download the conference brochure 

Two Day International Conference: Xi Jinping’s Third Term: Implications for Global Order & India

Chinese President Xi Jinping has secured an unprecedented third term in the 20th Party Congress cementing his place as an unrivaled authority over the second largest economy of the world. Since Xi assumed power in 2012 and in the lead-up to the 20th Congress, Xi systematically decimated rival party factions, including through his anti-corruption drive, and emerged as the undisputed leader with an unprecedented third term. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping has secured an unprecedented third term in the 20th Party Congress cementing his place as an unrivaled authority over the second largest economy of the world. Since Xi assumed power in 2012 and in the lead-up to the 20th Congress, Xi systematically decimated rival party factions, including through his anti-corruption drive, and emerged as the undisputed leader with an unprecedented third term.

Xi Jinping has employed the use of Chinese nationalism in order to advance his policies and achieve the objective of rejuvenating the nation, referred to as the "China dream." His ideas for rejuvenating China and reinstating Communist values, referred to as "Xi Jinping Thoughts," have been adopted by the Communist Party of China (CCP) as a guiding principle for their future endeavors.

Under the leadership of Xi, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China has undergone a transformation from being a primarily defensive force to one with increasing capabilities for intervention in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean Region (IOR). China envisions that its military will become a “world class force” by 2050.

Xi Jinping has already unveiled China's hegemonic ambitions to become a global superpower and a modern socialist industrial state by 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. To counter US dominance, China aims to expand ties with the Global South, which will shape its own networks of partnerships and alliances across the globe. Through all these, China increasingly declares its ambition to lead in global governance issues and shows determination to shape a post-Western order.

Xi visualizes the People's Liberation Army being transformed into a modern fighting force capable of winning wars by 2035. These ambitions are being realized through large defense outlays, massive expansion of naval power, and the development of cutting-edge technologies by using fair or foul means. The One Belt and One Road Initiative (OBOR) and the troika of the Global Development Initiative (GDI), Global Security Initiative (GSI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) respectively are Beijing's ways to establish an overarching framework under Beijing's leadership and export its views on global security and development. Given India’s adversarial relations with Beijing post-Galwan, the challenge is not just about the Himalayan border or the IOR but is also about expanding the scope with the aforementioned initiatives.

This suggests that the Chinese government under Xi Jinping's leadership may demonstrate a tendency towards assertiveness in international affairs, a refusal to compromise on boundary issues, and a willingness to use both traditional and non traditional means for achieving China’s goals. Under the garb of ‘Chinese Characteristics’, Beijing’s diplomatic, financial, and material resources are being liberally employed that have the capacity to potentially undermine India and her interests. The bilateral and multilateral responses of India are a result of the developments in India’s neighborhood and have the potential to influence the global order.

China's economy, politics, and engagement with the world follow the trends seen at the outset of Xi's third term in office: the centralization of power, slower growth, wolf war diplomacy, recourse to unconventional warfare and externalities in foreign policy. With these developments, the following questions merit attention:

1. Will Xi's third term see a continuation, and possibly intensification, of the trends already underway in Chinese policy?

2. How will China's economic governance model, its role in the global economy, innovation capacity, and other economic and technological factors shape its future and the world?

3. What does China’s BRI, GDI & GSI mean to India and its neighbourhood?

4. Xi’s GSI concept paper suggests dialogue as a means to resolve disputes and calls for upholding the sovereignty of all nations irrespective of their size. How does China align its aforementioned GSI vision and its policies of debt trap diplomacy and salami slicing when they’re a complete contradiction in essence?

5. Does China-US antagonism amount to a global world order characterized by cold war 2.0?

6. Xi Jinping’s CCP aims to upgrade the PLA into a “world class military" by 2049 and this objective synchronizes with Xi Jinping’s conception of the “Chinese Dream.” What are the trends visible in military modernisation and the PLA's unconventional warfare strategy under Xi in complementing his ambition to materialize the Chinese dream?

7. What are the ways through which China employs influence operations and data manipulation? How does censorship help China tailor its global image according to its ideals?

8. China is shifting from a manufacturing economy to a high technology economy. What are the implications for India and the world?

This conference by the China Study Forum (CSF), in collaboration with the School of International Cooperation, Security and Strategic languages (SICCSL), Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) and National Maritime Foundation (NMF), will decipher the nuances of Beijing’s assertive foreign policy under Xi Jinping in his third term and its implications for New Delhi.

This conference by the China Study Forum (CSF), in collaboration with the School of International Cooperation, Security and Strategic languages (SICCSL), Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) and National Maritime Foundation (NMF), will decipher the nuances of Beijing’s assertive foreign policy under Xi Jinping in his third term and its implications for New Delhi.