The CCP Politburo holds “collective study sessions” on a semi-regular basis, in which an outside academic or government expert leads a discussion on a selected topic. Such sessions can signal which issues the senior leadership considers to be important. On January 30, 2026, Xi Jinping presided over the 24th collective study session of the 20th Central Committee. Xi delivered a speech emphasizing the need to leverage China’s competitive advantages to drive breakthroughs in future industries.

Xing Guangcheng, a leading scholar on borderlands and Sino-Russian relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, argues U.S. strategy towards China has shifted from “engagement plus containment” to comprehensive containment, creating unprecedented challenges for China in its periphery. He urges China to “re-create” its peripheral environment by reshaping rather than merely preserving favorable conditions, with the Belt and Road Initiative as the key platform. Stressing the importance of soft power and people-to-people ties to counter the “China threat” narrative, Xing highlights SCO, ASEAN, and BRICS as “levers” for regional cooperation that can help China resist U.S. encirclement and achieve long-term rejuvenation.

Wang Junsheng of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) highlights China’s achievements in work on periphery affairs since 2012. He credits Chinese president Xi Jinping with elevating leader-to-leader diplomacy and deepening economic integration through trade, multilateral mechanisms, and major projects such as the Jakarta–Bandung high-speed railway and China–Central Asia gas pipeline. Wang underscores China’s security initiatives on the Korean Peninsula, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, alongside expanded cultural and educational exchanges. Contrasting China’s cooperative vision with Western “zero-sum” theories, he warns of U.S. efforts to encircle China and rising hostility from Japan, India, and parts of Southeast Asia.

Writing after Xi Jinping’s April 2025 travel to Southeast Asia, Peking University professor Zhai Kun stresses that China’s periphery is the foundation of its security, survival, and development. He argues that the balance between the “two wheels” of work on periphery affairs—development and security—is mutually reinforcing, citing the Belt and Road as a key platform for promoting Chinese-style modernization in the periphery. Zhai observes the 2025 Central Conference on this topic elevated “periphery diplomacy” into broader “work on periphery affairs,” signaling the Party’s prioritization of China’s periphery across all domains.

Writing after the April 2025 Central Conference on Work Relating to the Periphery, Li Kaisheng of the Shanghai Academy of International Studies credits President Xi Jinping’s leadership with elevating periphery diplomacy and bringing China’s relations with its periphery to their “best period in modern times.” Li underscores the periphery’s importance to China’s development, security, and diplomacy, linking the stability of China’s relations with its periphery to Chinese-style modernization and resistance to U.S. containment. He identifies Xi’s principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness as the foundation of periphery diplomacy, expanded through five new dimensions, and portrays head-of-state diplomacy as essential to fostering trust, managing disputes, and advancing flagship projects.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held a central conference on work relating to the periphery in April 2025, highlighting periphery diplomacy as central to China’s development, security, foreign relations, and the “community of common destiny.” Chinese president Xi Jinping reaffirmed the 2013 guidelines of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness, stressing that ties with China’s periphery are now at their strongest in modern times but must adapt to shifting dynamics. Priorities include consolidating political trust, deepening economic and supply chain integration, strengthening security cooperation, and expanding exchanges, guided by stronger Party leadership and institutional reform.

The CCP Politburo holds “collective study sessions” on a semi-regular basis, in which an outside academic or government expert leads a discussion on a selected topic. Such sessions can signal which issues the senior leadership considers to be important. On November 28, 2025, Xi Jinping presided over the 23rd collective study session of the 20th Central Committee. Xi delivered a speech emphasizing the need to improve long-term mechanisms for cyberspace governance.

The CCP Politburo holds “collective study sessions” on a semi-regular basis, in which an outside academic or government expert leads a discussion on a selected topic. Such sessions can signal which issues the senior leadership considers to be important. On September 29, 2025, Xi Jinping presided over the 22nd collective study session of the 20th Central Committee. Xi delivered a speech emphasizing the need to systematically promote the Sinicization of religions in China and actively guide religions to adapt to a socialist society.

The CCP Politburo holds “collective study sessions” on a semi-regular basis, in which an outside academic or government expert leads a discussion on a selected topic. Such sessions can signal which issues the senior leadership considers to be important. The 21st collective study session of the 20th Central Committee Politburo was held on June 30, 2025, and was presided over by Xi Jinping. Xi delivered a speech emphasizing the need to continue the self-revolution of the Party by further regulating the exercise of power and enforcing strict discipline.

This special action plan issued by the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council outlines 30 actions to boost domestic consumption. These proposals aim to spur and improve the quality of consumption capacity, service consumption, and more to enhance the contributions of domestic consumption to China’s overall economy. The plan prioritizes increasing consumer spending power through pay adjustments and direct employment support while also addressing constraints on consumption. It also calls for leveraging fiscal policy support to supplement public services and expand disposable income, increasing consumption efficiency, and promoting new industries, consumption models and income channels.