Domestic unrest in China could push the country's new leader Xi Jinping to take a tougher line on foreign policy than his predecessor Hu Jintao, a Taiwanese scholar said Tuesday.
The current domestic situation in China is "very different" from that in 2002, when Hu took office as Chinese president, Tsai Ming-yen, an international politics professor at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, told CNA on the sidelines of an international conference discussing China's ongoing leadership transition.
In 2002, Chinese society was relatively stable with fewer protests, but rapid economic growth over the past decade has given rise to different social needs and sparked mounting discontent over corruption, environmental degradation, and other issues, Tsai said.
The government may look for a way to divert attention from the country's domestic ills, and nationalistic displays could be an option.
"The concern now is that domestic unrest could lead China to adopt a more aggressive foreign policy," Tsai said.
China's handling of tensions over the Diaoyutais (Diaoyu or Senkaku islands), when it stoked up anti-Japanese nationalistic fervor and made a show of force in waters near the disputed East China Sea islets, was an example of what the future might hold, Tsai said.
Read the full story at Want China Times