AP Photo

On the foreign policy front, China continues to take a very assertive policy towards its neighbors on territorial disputes in the South China Sea (Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei) and the East China Sea (Japan). Moreover, China and India continue to take issue with each other over their contested claims to the Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh (administered by Beijing and New Delhi respectively). China has also failed to resolve a lingering dispute with the tiny mountain kingdom of Bhutan, and maintains another lesser known dispute with South Korea over the maritime rights over Socotra rock, a submerged rock in the Yellow Sea that both (as well as North Korea and Taiwan) claim falls under their exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Under international law, however,...