This publication discusses the national image of China. The author argues that the misalignment between China's image of itself and how it is viewed by the rest of the world may be China's greatest strategic threat. The country's most important strategic issues, challenges as diverse as sustaining economic growth and the threat of Taiwanese independence, have at their root a shared connection to China's national image. The paper argues that alongside its other reforms, China needs a "fifth transition" if trust and understanding necessary for the next stage of its development are to be achieved.

Joshua Cooper Ramo is Managing Director and partner at Kissinger Associates, one of the world's leading geo-strategic and cross-border

advisory firms. He is based largely in Beijing.

Prior to entering the advisory business, he was a journalist, the

youngest Senior Editor and later Foreign Editor in the history of TIME

Magazine. The World Economic Forum has called him "one of

China's leading foreign born scholars". His paper ‘The Beijing

Consensus’ (Foreign Policy Centre, 2004) was widely distributed and

discussed in China.

Ramo has been, among other things, a member of the World

Economic Forum's Global Young Leaders, a Crown fellow of the

Aspen Institute, a co-founder of the US-China Young Leaders

Forum, and a member of ASIA 21. An avid fixed wing and helicopter

pilot, his book about his experiences as a competitive aerobatic pilot,

"No Visible Horizon", was published by Simon & Schuster. His

forthcoming book on geo-strategy will be published by Little, Brown.