This special issue is entitled “Perspectives on China’s International Presence: Strategies, Processes and Challenges”. All the authors were participants in the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau (CCCM) China Conferences, held annually in the spring. The first two articles look back at developments in the first decade of the millennium, and provide important analysis that contributes to our understanding of the events that mark the present-day. The remaining three articles focus on contemporary political issues, and deal with various aspects of Chinese domestic and international politics. Each of the papers presents original research, with independent and novel findings, that will certainly be of use to the readers of the issue in understanding recent issues that concern China in the twenty-first century.