All Chinese eyes are now turned towards next year's Olympic Games in Beijing.They are determined to make a grand success of it -- as a sports meet, as a spectacle, as a show case of what China has already achieved and what it is going to achieve in future and as a demonstration of China's soft power.
One can be certain that they will. A tremendous pride in themselves as a country and as a people, self-discipline, self-motivation, a readiness to admit that they have so much to learn yet and a willingness to learn it from others -- whether they be Indians or Americans or Japanese or Europeans or other Asians or anybody else. These are the defining characteristics of China of today. No visitor to China can miss them.
India has to be wary of China in view of its past painful experiences in dealing with it, but its cautious reflexes born out of its past painful experiences should not blind it to the positive aspects of China of today and make it shy of learning from them.
Image: Authorities show off the $2.7 billion airport expansion that revealed a gleaming facility which they say will be one of the world's showcase airports when it fully opens by July 2008 in time for the Olympic Games next August. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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