The 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was held in November of 2002 to elect a fourth generation of Chinese leaders. It has since generated keen interests and voluminous writings by Western academics who have tried to understand the changes in the Party as well as in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Apparently the new relationship between the Party and the army is still evolving. Former President Jiang Zemin has relinquished the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission sooner than expected and new President Hu Jintao has consolidated his control and power over the Party as well as the army. Jiang's resignation from the Central Military Commission two years after he stepped down from the presidency ended speculations about his ambition to continue to control the army. The authors in this book examine the leadership transition in China and the new leaders who emerged from the 16th Congress.

John Tkacik writes about the so-called "two centers" in the fourth generation of leaders, which are understood to be the Maoists and the rightists, or the Cultural Revolution and the Old Party, the two traditional opposing forces in Chinese politics. But since the 16th Congress, the two centers are made up of reformists and the Communist Party apparatchiks. Tkacik says five or six of the nine-member Politburo were handpicked by Jiang. He says Hu Jintao can only count on his premier Wen Jiabao, who is heading one of the two centers while the other center is led by Zeng Qinghong, who is Jiang's most trusted confidant. Both Wen and Zeng are leading the two factions in the fourth generation competing for preeminence in China's political structure. Tkacik says Wen is urbane, intellectual and a reformist who has been at the center of power for the past 15 years. Zeng is ambitious, canny and a determined supporter of Jiang who belonged to the Shanghai gang.

China's military in the meantime has continued to modernize with the import of modern technology and the backing of a strong budget for defense. Academics have spilled much ink on the transformation of the PLA from an army based on quantity to a more modern army based on quality. The PLA has learned from the US-led war against Iraq and has fashioned for itself new doctrines and strategies dealing with modern wars. In chapters on the PLA, several authors discuss changes in the army's structure, how military leaders are chosen and promoted, and the procurements of weapons that would make the PLA a modern army. Even the grading and ranking of military officers, and their retirement, is studied to provide a deep understanding of an army that is being reformed to fight and win big wars, not just local wars.

China's think tanks and research organizations have become central sources of information, analysis and intelligence on foreign policy issues. Those think tanks and research institutes have grown in importance in recent years to support the formulation of a foreign policy for the new leaders. Those organizations are an important window for foreign researchers and governments to understand the changes in China. The authors cite four journals published by Chinese think tanks and research institutes: International Studies (Guoji Wenti Yanjiu), Contemporary International Relations (Xiandai Guoji Guanxi), World Economics and Politics (Shijie Jingji yu Zhengzhi) and International Strategic Studies, which is published in English. Evan S. Medeiros says the contents of those four publications confirmed many of the key trends in the evolution of China's foreign policy. Author Jason E. Bruzdzinski discusses the mystery about "shashoujian" a term that includes three Chinese characters: kill (sha), hand (shou) and a sword or club (jian). The English translation for the term is approximately the "assassin mace". The author says shashoujian is an important Chinese military concept that dates back many centuries ago and has great influence on the country's current national security and defense.