What drives Xi's foreign policy?

It's a question I'm often asked: What drives President Xi Jinping's robust foreign policy? The assumption is that Xi has upped China's global game, making the country's international relations more proactive and engaging, some say more muscular and aggressive. All recognize that China is now involved with every important issue in world affairs. Moreover, China is starting to shape the agenda of international discourse, not just react to the ideas and actions of others.

Examples of China's vigorous foreign policy under President Xi are well known: the Belt and Road Initiative reaching out to some 60 countries, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, new kind of major power relations with the US, strategic partnership with Russia, "golden era" in relations with the UK, high-profile state visits to Germany and France, support for African development, climate change, the list goes on. In less than three years as China's president, Xi has visited more than three dozen countries.

What motivates China's diplomatic transformation? There is no secret answer, no master plan hatched behind the guarded walls of Zhongnanhai, where China's leaders work in central Beijing. Rather, a confluence of factors comes together, enhancing China's role on the world's stage.