To many Chinese, Americans don’t have xin-yan (心眼, meaning,  literally, eyes of the mind; or figuratively, calculating, wily), they trust what you say, and they believe you are doing what you say you are doing. For that, they are dumb.

Unlike the world’s other most populous nations, the Chinese do not acknowledge or seek a multiracial character. The Han Chinese, comprising a majority of some 92%, believe themselves to comprise a distinct race whose superiority, when a long view is taken, they regard as self-evident. In this view, Western ascendancy is a recent and brief anomaly, following which China will return to its natural position at the centre of the world.

Until its engagement with Europe in the nineteenth century forced it to operate more according to the rules of nation-states, China thought of itself as the centre of the world -- it was the middle kingdom or the "land under heaven."  It did not even need a name. Unlike, say, the United States or Israel, it was not said to be the land chosen by a God, but rather the chosen land by virtue of the sheer brilliance of its civilization. 

[...]

Unlike those of a nation-state, China’s frontiers were, until relatively recently, never carefully drawn or policed, but instead regarded as zones tapering from civilization into barbarism.

Many years ago, I used to think China's quality issues were "an emerging market thing" and not "a China thing." I thought that we were constantly reading of China quality issues because China is such a large producer. I thought that until I spoke at a China-focused product liability conference and had lunch with a super high level official with the United States Consumer Protection Agency who told me that year and year out, China's product safety record is at least six times worse on a percentage per product basis than any other country in the world. "Pakistan," I asked. "Yes," he said? "Cambodia?" "Yes." "Sri Lanka?" Yes. "Laos?" "Yes."  "How can that possibly be," I asked. "I don't know," he said, "but it is."

When I lived in the Middle East, I often heard a variation of this statement about why regimes there liked China: The Chinese come to do business, and they don't meddle with domestic politics.

Quote by NFG:

It's hard for me to get my head around what the Chinese really think, but this article suggests that the Chinese look down on Westerners for being honest and forthright, instead of devious and vague:

To many Chinese, Americans don’t have xin-yan (心眼, meaning,  literally, eyes of the mind; or figuratively, calculating, wily), they trust what you say, and they believe you are doing what you say you are doing. For that, they are dumb.

I saw a couple of young British men on a Japanese train last week, who seem to have a similar attitude towards the Japanese.  These two loud, rude and animated louts were annoying everyone on the train as if to say the Japanese are quiet and don't want to cause a scene by chastising us, so we will take advantage of their weakness and be assholes as much as we like.  What I perceive as a virtue, these two seemed to see as weakness.  The Chinese view of honesty and forthrightness seems very similar.

Quote by NFG on 2011-05-22, 07:55:

I saw a similar article talking about the general's words, but I never once thought that it meant China was establishing bases in Africa.  Instead, it seems to me that China's launching assaults on pirates, a mini-invasion police action.

And that brings me back to China: Are they going to be a power for good, an empire like America that ostensibly tried to do the right thing?  Or will they act only in their own interests, like it seems America increasingly does?

Quote by Kendrick on 2011-05-18, 17:30:

Quote by Kendrick on 2010-03-29, 17:30:

When you look at those numbers, you need to think about the "average" yearly income of the Chinese, which works out to around USD$2,000 after conversion. I put quotes around the word because the average has dirt-poor farmers at one end, and absurdly wealthy real estate tycoons at the other. That means that in real terms, $160 a month isn't the actual average.

And now, somebody noticed. I didn't know about the Hurun Wealth Report, which is an NGO publication that enumerates the worth of the richest Chinese. A Time Magazine blogger has noticed that the list is breeding discontent in China, and causes the wealthiest to be investigated (or at least publicly disliked.) Here's the link:

http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/05/17/to-be-young-ri…

The first time I visited China, in 2005, an American businessman living
there told me that the country was so huge and was changing so fast
that everything you heard about it was true, and so was the opposite.
That still seems to be the case. China is the fastest-growing consumer
market in the world, and American companies have made billions there.
At the same time, Chinese consumers aren't spending nearly as much as
American companies had hoped. China has simultaneously become the
greatest boon and the biggest disappointment.