When Xi Jinping takes the helm of the Communist Party of China at the party's 18th National Congress next month, he will face a difficult task maintaining friendships with his country's neighbors and the United States.
Under the leadership of outgoing leader Hu Jintao, China has come a long way in setting up its peaceful development strategy, but Xi will still face many challenges when he takes over the leadership of China's ruling party and eventually its government.
He will have to deal with the United States' strategy of returning to Asia, his country's territorial disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines over islets in the South China Sea, and its territorial dispute with Japan over the Diaoyutai Islands (Diaoyu in China, Senkaku in Taiwan).
For all the common interests that China and the US have around the world, the two have a fundamental difference: China is not a democracy and follows a value system quite different from that of the US, which leaves Washington keeping a vigilant eye on Beijing.
Read the full story at Want China Times