HONG KONG — China is testing its influence in every direction, trying to balance its need to be seen as a fair global player with its nationalist instincts, to balance a genuine internationalism against the paranoia that comes naturally to a closed political system.
This week the locus has been the Ural city of Yekaterinburg, host to the first official meeting of the BRIC — the catchy acronym invented by Goldman Sachs to make a group from the four largest emerging markets, China, India, Brazil and Russia. If the meeting showed anything it was that their strategic economic interests are very different, though tactical alliances do occur.
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