China ready to flex wings as world power

From successfully hosting the 2008 Olympic Games to recognition as a so-called G2 partner with the US, China's clout on the global stage has had a boost. And significantly, this has been achieved in a year, not decades.

Last year's Games were perhaps the most visible symbol of China's rapid rise as an international power. Not only did the event serve as China's 'coming-out party', but it also helped mark the country's economic achievements, especially those since the beginning of this millennium, said Jin Canrong , deputy dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University. In this short time, China moved from being the world's sixth-largest economy to being No3.

Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, a China watcher at City University of Hong Kong, said the success of the Olympics had given China's leadership a major psychological boost. With it came more confidence on the international stage and more assertiveness in foreign policy.

Steven Tsang, a China watcher at Britain's Oxford University, said that while the central government gained a lot of good coverage through the Games, he was not sure 'if this really enhanced the country's soft power that much'.

'This does not mean the leadership does not believe in trying to raise China's standing and improve its image. The Olympics has certainly reinforced this,' Professor Tsang said. 'But the outside world has largely forgotten about the Games by now.'

For years, China's foreign policy was guided by Deng Xiaoping's cautious injunction tao guang yang hui, a term used by ancient strategists and often translated as 'hiding one's capacities and biding one's time'. But it seems that China's time has arrived.