SINGAPORE -- China's new president, Hu Jintao, appears to be remaking his country's foreign policy. Taking over in mid-March after the 16th Communist Party Congress, Hu was immediately plunged into one of China's biggest crises in modern times, the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Few perceptions of Hu existed in the international arena before he emerged on the world stage at the end of May, when he paid his first official visits to Russia, France, Mongolia and Kazakstan.
Under Hu, four elements of China's new foreign-policy thrust are discernible: a more discreet orientation for internal reasons, the rising importance of economic imperatives, the rebuilding of China's image following the SARS debacle and the need for a more balanced "multipolar and multilateral foundation" following the Iraq war.