Each gov’t’s work is to make best for their country, for it’s people. So no matter which country is siding with which country, there is always self-interest. There will always be distorted views circulating.

Lastly, for the currency issue. I do think some gov’t controls the flow of their money in its market thus, risking the value of its money. Its a risky thing but I think that’s the only easy solution they can think of.

Currently, China is also improving its environmental issues. though it might be costly, but it generates a new market to make businesses. There might be big costs to change the technology and removing old plants, vehicles & etc. but it will be shouldered all by the people during this transformation. It’s just the right time for everyone to act.

A quote from comment by Dev Dutta above.

The comment of Mr Dev Dutta is so typical and so very self-serving; wishful thinking rather than analytical. Like most Westerners, Mr Dutta too indulges in “hope and prayer”. There are already enough doomsday sayers that wish China ill, but for years the wishlist of evils that will befall on China has remained just that, mere wishful thinking; like the saying goes, “Stick and stones may break my bones but words can never harm me.’

I perceive in the comments of Mr Dutta, his utter frustration that India is so helpless in the face of China’s growing strength; but that ought not to frustrate him because China is benign and will not interfere in another’s internal affairs!

Just read Mr. Dutta’s comments and you will observe that what he is griping about in India’s lesser stature in geo-politics. He is all about India wanting to be world No, 1; as a matter I had correctly anticipated. Well Mr Dutta, if China concedes to India and says “INDIA IS NO.1″. Does that make you happy?

That said China has no ambition to dominate other nations; so the question whether US is stronger has no relevance. Simply said in terms of independence the might of the USA that is 10 times that of China has no relevance because China is not there to give USA contest nor are they competitors, because China has no intention to conquer others’ land; China leaves that to the Americans. China will stick to its world view that China will not interfere in the internal affairs of another’s ! Great power kudos is an illusion and nations that seek imperialism will invariably spiral into spreading their resources too thinly, this has always been the case with all past Imperial powers without exception; and in any case what is the worth of dominating another. All said and done, the USA Empire has lasted for only 50 years; and although there are libraries written that argue that the USA will remain the world’s dominant power, all the signs are that the USA has already lost their shine; the USA will not collapse but it will lose their influence like a leaking balloon. In the meantime China has already built up their capital of soft power. The areas of silent contest are in Latin America, Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East; and in all of these areas in hearts and minds, the USA is now seen as the global bully and China is seen as the good neighbor.

We are still trying to deal with the “bolt from the blue” that suddenly made China our northern neighbour when it invaded and occupied Tibet through naked aggression. As this made China a part of the South Asian equation it chose to play a particularly negative role in the region by aligning with Pakistan, an entity that is essentially a tragic accident of history much like the third reich was. This brazen shortsightedness might have taken care of China’s short term goals in the region but in the longer term, it is not going to take her anywhere and in the worst case scenario, could boomerang on her. China’s South Asia policy is almost entirely designed to contain India although our leaders have completely agreed to Chinese suzerainty over Tibet. But China was not satisfied and like any bully, kept on harassing a passive India with overtly aggressive border posturing. In course of time, it was emboldened to “teach a lesson” to India and attacked her in 1962 and in the short war that followed, occupied vast tracts of Indian territory which she now claims as her own. As the spineless Indian leadership continued encouraging an overtly aggressive China with a disgraceful pusillanimity, the latter now has begun demanding more Indian territory and is causing a lot of trouble to Indian villages in the border regions. China’s role in the clandestine build-up of Pakistan’s illegal nuclear infrastructure and acquisition of Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles is well known. But since “power flows from the barrel of a gun” the world chose to ignore it. Heaven forbid, no loose nukes should find their way to either New York or Shanghai. We’ll all know whence it would have rolled out from but a little late in the day.

The present Indian leadership, after substantial public outcry over its lacklustre attitude toward Chinese aggression has been forced to change its approach and this hopefully marks a new beginning. Unlike in China, where the Communist party is an end in itself, in India it is the people who eventually have their way. It’s a democracy after all, howsoever imperfect, with institutions like an independent judiciary, one of the world’s best election monitoring authorities, a federal structure with its typical power pulls apart from a free and often “activist” media. These and many other institutions that safeguard the paramount position of the people of India, will ensure in the long run, that India understand her priorities better than her leaders are willing to do. Indian leaders are steadily falling in line as democracy in the country matures and this will also change the dynamics on India’s border with China. This is a straightforward matter of priority which the entire country appreciates and this isn’t good news for China. As for Mr. Pei’s view that the US and Japan are “providing aid” to India to stand up to China, I can only say that much as he has understood China, he still has a long way to go before he understands India. Well, India is too huge a nation to be given “aid” to manage security challenges from an adversary of which the US itself is quite wary let alone Japan. On the other hand, India might not be raking in as much cash as China is doing but she still has enough to buy military hardware from wherever she wants with cash upfront. For Mr. Pei’s information, India’s biggest armaments supplier is tiny Israel followed by mammoth Russia. The US doesn’t figure anywhere as of yet. Talking of arms selling, countries’ unwillingness to sell arms to China, it is but natural that nobody likes to be cheated and taken for a ride as the Russians realized with regard to one of their advanced fighters and others with less expensive wares. The bottom-line is, China has had a good run thus far but if she doesn’t change her style there’s going to trouble ahead.

Clearly having worn the cape of superpower for the remainder of the 20th century has allowed the USA to exploit the economic and political dividends that have arrived as a consequence. This has been due (in a large part) to its success in maintaining this military strength and supported by the ability to remain politically cohesive relative to the Soviet Union. But to claim that its status as a superpower derives from its high moral purpose or more attractive vision of the future is misleading. The fact is that whether countries become superpowers at all, is a consequence of their military strength and that needs no extra ‘add-on’ or visions of the future where all men are created equal etc. etc.. History reveals this to us in the examples of Rome, Mongolia, Spain, France England etc. and even Nazi Germany if they hadn’t been stopped.

China today, is no less capable of attaining superpower status on the basis of growing its military strength; but this seems to be a target or ambition placed on it by the paranoid western media rather than a goal pursued for its own sake by the present government. Furthermore, the claim that the country is ideologically bankrupt is also naïve. Most countries or political ideologies struggle to attain the principles upon which they are founded. Without exception, they all fail and either fall or morph into something different in order to adapt to the world rather than shape it; this has already happened in the case of China. The country of Mao Zedong is unrecognisable from that of Deng Xiaoping and that of Deng from today’s under Hu Jintao; this process is underway and has acquired some momentum which is still building rather than diminishing. It hasn’t peaked yet but it will. In the meantime China is not a superpower because its military ambitions are suppressed by its desire to grow its wealth rather than its power; as opposed to what seems to be the bankrupt pursuit (aka ideology) of the western allies over the last 10 years who have wanted to pursue power in the vain hope that wealth can be ceased rather than earned….