I) Current financial crisis and China economic miracle: Does modern China have soft power?

I) Current financial crisis and China economic miracle: Does modern China have soft power?By all accounts, China is leading the world out of the current global financial crisis. According to China Daily, Oct 18, 2009, a professor of Economics and Head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham in the UK wrote in part: “As celebrations of its achievements over the past 60 years subside, China can look forward to its next milestone: surpassing Japan as the world's second largest economy before the year is out. Another target reached ahead of schedule – and further evidence that China is emerging from the financial crisis as the big winner.“Based on past records, and taking into account China's expected growth rate over the next two decades, China will overtake the United States to become the largest economy in the world within five years measured in purchasing power parity-terms, and within 20 years measured in nominal terms. It could be even sooner. These predictions are based on the assumption that the US economy will grow 3 percent per year and the Chinese economy 9 percent per year, assuming constant nominal exchange and inflation rates for both countries.“But if the yuan continues to appreciate against the dollar as it has done in the past decade, and/or if China's domestic inflation rate is higher than that of the US, China will gain ground even quicker.”China’s rise in economics apparently is not accompanied by the same measure of soft power rise in world influence. There is no lack of Western media and think tank reports on the subject. The overwhelming Western verdict is that China’s political and cultural influence as a world power on the world stage will be a long time coming. Although the lack of deserving recognition for China’s soft power is due to complex historical reasons, the simple verdict given has been that China does not have the “politically correct” ideology by Western standards. Will this prognosis persist? Most likely not, should one look back to the history of ancient China’s cultural influence.