Who makes China’s policy?

I ventured into a debate between two eminent analysts of Chinese policy-making: Bonnie Glaser of CSIS in Washington and Linda Jakobson of the Lowy Institute in Sydney. Linda recently wrote a very good report highlighting how many of China’s actions in the South China Sea could be explained by the bureaucratic imperatives of the organisations involved. Bonnie had responded by arguing that China’s actions were centrally directed. I think that they’re both right – there are both bureaucratic and national reasons for China’s actions. I tried to explain more here.