1. The institutionalization of Chinese leadership change is impressive, allowing the leaders to remain flexible in responding to mounting problems both internally and externally. Finding an appropriate mix of the party leadership and the state leadership will become increasingly important (including quite critically the PLA as well) for the 5th generation of Chinese leaders.
2. Issues and problems confronting the Chinese leaders are quite complex, where dichotomy between the old trend pushing the rise of China, on the one hand, and the new trend caused by China’s rise, on the other, creates contradiction at this critical time of transition and transformation.
3. Internally, as a natural outcome of the reform and open door policies prioritizing the development of the costal areas, various gaps emerged including the underdevelopment of the inner land, wealth disparity, diversification of values among the public, and so forth. Externally, a rising China has begun to feel and express dissatisfaction against some of the existing norms and rules of the liberal international order which China has taken advantage of in realizing its spectacular rise during the last three decades.