WEIXING CHEN is Professor of Political Science at East Tennessee State University, USA. YANG ZHONG is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, USA.

• PART I: LEADERSHIP CHANGE AND INSTITUTION BUILDING The 16th CCP National Congress: Institutionalization of Succession Politics; Z.Yongnian New Leaders and Institution Building in China; L.Gang Building a New Political Order in Post-Jiang China; W.Chen & G.Liu New Institution Building or Muddling Through in the Chinese Countryside?; Y.Zhong To Craft Village Democracy in China: The Roles of National Political Elites; L.Youzing PART II: LEADERSHIP CHANGE AND NEW FOREIGN POLICY OROENTATIONS The 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and China's Foreign Policy; C.Shulong The Impact of Domestic Politics on Chinese Foreign Policy; S.Xinning Chinese Foreign Policy in Transition; G.Liu Cross-Strait Relations After the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party; J. Fu-Sheng

"Chinese politics has become less crisis-driven in the past decade, but it has not become less complex. Changes in society and in the role of the Communist Party of China have put a divided and hesitant central leadership on the edge of major political reform. These scholars use their intimate familiarity with China's current realities to provide a comprehensive analysis of the trends shaping China's political choices and the dilemmas facing the leadership as it attempts to govern a changing China." - Brantly Womack, University of Virginia