EXPECT President Xi Jinping to use 2015 to mend fences with China’s neighbours after two tension-filled years that saw Beijing launching an air defence zone and deploying an oil rig to stake its maritime claims, analysts say.

Keeping ties on an even keel is necessary for China to repair its image as a “regional bully” on the one hand, and to open up new markets to shore up the continuing slump in the world’s No. 2 economy on the other, they add.

“This priority originates from the diplomatic debacles in the past few years and the belief that as long as China does not have a solid, secure and well-managed neighbourhood, such vulnerability will always undermine its security and emergence as a regional and global power,” said Washington-based analyst Yun Sun at Stimson Centre, a think-tank.

…”Xi seems to have a strong interest in making the success of the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative his major foreign policy legacy in the coming years,” said Singapore-based analyst Li Mingjiang of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.