China's return to global stage checked by national security focus

FILE PHOTO: A cutout depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping is on display outside a gift shop in Moscow, Russia May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

(This May 8 story has been corrected to change Alfred Wu's title to associate professor, not associate dean, in paragraph 5)

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's increasing focus on its own security and intensifying rivalry with the United States threatens to turn its re-engagement with the world after years of COVID curbs into a new era of isolation from the West, analysts say.