There is a sea difference between confidence and self-inflation. China is rising rapidly and has reasons to be proud of its miracles. But our confidence has been unfortunately hijacked by the self-inflation of some scholars who either say China has surpassed the US comprehensively or called for terminating private ownership to leap into communism. One renowned professor from Tsinghua University who studies our national conditions draws fire from the social media. He says China is ahead of the US in manufacturing, science and overall national capacity. 

Some Chinese argue Americans would be scared, others say few would take him very seriously since our per capita income in the top three cities of Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai was put at twenty thousand US dollars in 2016, even is less than half of the United States, not mention the rural areas in China. Our average life span is ten years below Japan. Minister of industry and information Mr. Miao Yu said last March that China trails behind the US and Europe by thirty years in manufacturing. 

Soft power remains our vulnerability, some argue, since Europeans complain that China becomes less and less attractive with the growth of our economy and world status. Long term, we shall suffer from water shortage, demographic changes and aging population as well as insufficient innovation. China is far from being the most popular destination for immigrants. In addition, can our institutions attract the best professionals? We shall wait to see. 

China is catching up very quickly but we know our weaknesses. The issue is whether China wants to surpass the US or challenge its primacy. Most here in China would say why should we? China benefits from the US leadership and its policy of engagement. We don’t want to replace the world order with our own rules. Ultra-nationalists here disagree. They are embarrassing their government and putting China in a collision course with the superpower. It won’t work.