I have a feeling we're all trying to imitate China. For at least a decade now a dominant rhetoric has been, 'China spends all their time and effort focused on their own country, as opposed to being involved in human rights, foreign aid and foreign wars, and look at how much GDP growth they're getting!

At the same time however, I feel that there has also been a 'push back' effect in terms between local and global culture. With every move we make trying to stitch together the world with a unified, global ideals system, the value of local culture and traditions gets magnified, especially among conservatives and nationalists.

In a world under economic stress, it is easy for nationalists to win when all they have to do is point to China's growth story.