A lengthy and thorough post from China Matters‘ China Hand looks at cooling Sino-German relations and the global role the two countries now play, set against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's recent visit to China [1]:
“So China—the world's most populous and vibrant economic power, which hasn't engaged in military aggression since its disastrous border dispute with Vietnam 25 years ago—must still content itself with second-class world citizenship; listen to the self-serving lectures about responsible global citizenship from the same group of nations whose sins of commission and omission created the geopolitical and human disaster in Iraq; and accept that the White Nations’ Club + Japan denies China has the right to arm itself and chart its military and foreign policy destiny without outside interference as befits a world power and Asian empire.”