China will never compromise on what it considers its “core interests” and “legitimate rights”, its new leader Xi Jinping has said in his first published speech on foreign policy since taking over as leader of the ruling Communist party in November.
Addressing the party’s elite 25-member Politburo, he struck a noticeably more strident tone than his predecessor Hu Jintao, insisting that China would “stick to the road of peaceful development but never give up our legitimate rights and never sacrifice our national core interests”.
For most of the past decade China’s official foreign policy stance has been defined by the mantra of “peaceful development” but, by adding the language on rights and core interests, Mr Xi appears to be hinting at a tougher stance on the international stage.