By Richard Wike, Director of Global Attitudes Research, Pew Research Center
Special to Foreign Policy
For Xi Jinping and China’s leaders, the Nov. 5-11 APEC summit should provide a welcome opportunity to showcase China’s economic progress. While recent global headlines about China have tended to focus on the democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong and the country’s often fraught relationship with its neighbors, the summit gives Beijing a chance to change the subject to economics, a topic with which it is far more comfortable. In Asia, many see China as the economic engine driving the region forward, while Western nations continue to struggle with the consequences of the Great Recession.
The summit at Yanqi Lake in the outskirts of Beijing will bring Pacific Rim leaders together to discuss issues like trade, regional economic integration, and corruption. And it will once again shine a global spotlight on the relative economic success Asia — in particular China — has enjoyed since the 2008 financial crisis.
