Public opinion in China seems to be that the country has become so powerful that it is entitled to more respectful treatment, especially at a time when the United States is widely seen as being in terminal decline.
Signs of growing Chinese assertiveness can be seen in such publications as the 1996 book “The China That Can Say No: Political and Emotional Choices in the post Cold War Era” as well as the more recent book “China Is Not Happy.” However, while being politically correct and saying, as Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi did recently, that “China's diplomacy is people's diplomacy,” Chinese diplomats are at pains to rein in excessive public exuberance regarding the country's growing role in the world.
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