In international business and finance, no less than in politics, diplomacy, defence, and questions of control of tiny strategic islands and islets in the seas around it, Beijing is showing an increasingly assertive tendency with the clear message that it will not allow itself to be pushed around by anyone.
The past few weeks have seen not just the imprisonment of two high-profile foreign business executives of Chinese origin on dubious charges of stealing 'state secrets' but also increasing foreign grumbles that Beijing is putting up unfair hurdles, making it more difficult for foreigners to do good business in China.
Peter Loescher, head of industrial conglomerate Siemens, and Juergen Hambrecht, chief executive of chemical maker BASF, had the temerity to challenge Premier Wen Jiabao himself in public about what they claimed was the deteriorating business climate.
The two companies together have investments of more than Euro9 billion (HK$90.3 billion) and employ 36,000 people in China. The fact that the Siemens and BASF chief executives were part of the official delegation visiting China with German Chancellor Angela Merkel only underscores how strongly the foreign business community feels.
They are not alone in complaining about how unfairly tough China is becoming. Steve Ballmer of Microsoft Corp spoke out again recently about rampant piracy of intellectual property in China and declared that 'China is a less interesting market to us than India ... than Indonesia'. Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, was also vociferous, albeit at a private dinner in Italy.
Grumbles of computer and software companies are particularly strong. Market research company IDC found that four out of five software applications running on personal computers in China have been stolen, not paid for. Between 2005 and 2009, foreign software developers complain, the commercial value of stolen personal computer software doubled to US$7.6 billion, about half owed to developers in the United States.