China's future is neither inevitable nor immutable: it will be shaped by the choices made to address the multiple interlinked challenges that it faces.

Thomas Fingar is a Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.Jean C. Oi is the William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics and a Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Introduction
 —Thomas Fingar and Jean C. Oi
1. Xi Jinping and the Evolution of Chinese Leadership Politics
 —Alice Lyman Miller
2. Grand Steerage
 —Barry Naughton
3. Anticorruption Forever?
 —Andrew Wedeman
4. Future of Central-Local Relations
 —Jean C. Oi
5. Social Media and Governance in China
 —Xueguang Zhou
6. Demographic Challenges
 —Karen Eggleston
7. Can China Achieve Inclusive Urbanization?
 —Mary E. Gallagher
8. Human Capital and China's Future
 —Hongbin Li, James Liang, Scott Rozelle, and Binzhen Wu
9. Sources and Shapers of China's Foreign Policy
 —Thomas Fingar
10. China and the Global South
 —Ho-fung Hung
11. Bold Strategy or Irrational Exuberance?
 —Christine Wong
12. All (High-Speed Rail) Roads Lead to China
 —David M. Lampton
13. China's Military Aspirations
 —Karl Eikenberry
14. China's National Trajectory
 —Andrew G. Walder