A giant stirs,a region bridles

摘要

AN ASCENDING economy,industrialising fast,that challenges the established power;hungry competition over energy resources;disputes over territory or spheres of influence;and nationalisms inflamed on one side by grievance and on the other by the opponent's presumption.It is becoming fashionable in policymak-ing circles to compare the situation of China and Japan today to that of Germany and Britain a century ago.Kent Calder of Johns Hopkins University,writing recently in Foreign Affairs,quoted Thucydi-des:fluid perceptions of power and fear are the classic causes of war.