Triumphalist China demands steak
An excellent Washington Post piece by John Pomfret outlines the ways in which China’s recent discovery of global influence is manifesting itself with increasing displays of arrogance confidence:
U.S. officials first began noticing the new Chinese attitude last year. Anecdotes range from the political to the personal.
At the World Economic Forum last year, Premier Wen Jiabao lambasted the United States for its economic mismanagement. A few weeks later, China’s central bank questioned whether the dollar could continue to play its role as the international reserve currency.
And in another vignette, confirmed by several sources, a senior U.S. official involved in the economy hosted his Chinese counterpart, who then made a series of disparaging remarks about the bureau that the American ran. Later that night, the two were to dine at the American’s house. The Chinese representatives called ahead, asking what was for dinner. They were informed that it was fish. “The director doesn’t eat fish,” one of them told his American interlocutor. “He wants steak. He says fish makes you weak.” The menu was changed.
The remainder of the article is equally illuminating. It is also a disturbing reminder of how the CCP can be expected behave as it makes itself comfortable at the big boy’s table.
Update
Big hat tip to Justrecently for pointing the way to an article in The Economist entitled Facing up to China .
A snippet to ponder:
From its perceived position of growing economic strength, China has been throwing its weight around. It played a central and largely unhelpful role at the climate-change talks in Copenhagen; it looks as if it will wreck a big-power consensus over Iran’s nuclear programme; it has picked fights in territorial disputes with India, Japan and Vietnam. At gatherings of all sorts, Chinese officials now want to have their say, and expect to be heeded.
When the liberally-inclined Economist starts to see the warning signs, it’s time for everyone to wake up to the new reality.