It's China's World, and We're All Living In It

OK, so I figured I'd break out my Opening Ceremony post from the haggling post below, because really, there's wasn't anything funny about the Opening Ceremony. Except the flag bearer from Kyrgyzstan, I think, who had to dress up like a paper-doll version of Genghis Khan.

After haggling at the Silk Market for the better part of three hours, I headed over to the Novatel Hotel near Tiananmen Square, where our viewing party for the Opening Ceremony was being held. Tiananmen and the Forbidden City were unfortunately closed today, as the 80 or so heads of state in town for the Ceremony were doing lunch together. I wonder if W. told Hu Jintao how much the barbeque in Beijing reminds him of Crawford.

It was around 6:30 or so, an hour and a half before the start of the Ceremony, and as I strolled up Jianguomennei Dajie street - no, I can't pronounce it - the crowds began to gather. Thousands of Chinese with flags, headbands, face paintings, t-shirts - a truly remarkable display of pride and patriotism. A couple of blocks up the street, a small square was packed to capacity under a jumbotron, showing footage of the Bushes, the Browns and other heads of state being graciously welcomed (and, dare I say, looking suspiciously supplicant) by Hu Jintao in front of the Great Wall. As the crowd awaited the start of the Ceremony, they began chanting and cheering and banging drums and raising all kind of cain. It was awesome.

The vibe has been seven years in the making, and the people of this country are nothing if not proud of their heritage. After Mao's Cultural Revolution killed off somewhere between 30-70 million Chinese and threatened to wipe away all traces of their long history, the Chinese are back in a big way. They make half the world's goods, there are over one hundred Chinese billionaires, and while the U.S. has spent itself into tremendous debt and done nearly everything possible to devalue the dollar, China sits on reserves of over $1.4 trillion. They're feeling pretty good about themselves, and some Chinese would say that they are merely back on track after a bad twentieth century (see rape of country by Japan in 1930s and 40s and failed Maoist extremism thereafter). Today, the Communist party of the 21st century has embraced capitalism (the official party line is something along the lines of "Making money is a truly glorious pursuit" - seriously) because money brings power, and just as America has always deemed itself a special, special place, blessed by God and democracy, China feels the same way, and is happy to point to five thousand years' worth of butt-kicking (minus a Nanjing Massacre here and there) to prove it.

Watch the Opening Ceremonies tonight, and from the first, breathtaking spectacle, ask yourself if the message China is sending the world tonight is anything other then:

DO. NOT. MESS. WITH. US.

And after this night, seeing how they've pulled this together, and pulled this off - I would tread very, very carefully around the dragon's den.