Washington Post: Traveling here last week after America's partial government shutdown and near-default, I expected to encounter a surge of confidence in China's inevitable, eventual emergence as the world's greatest power. That is not what I found.
Some people here do take pleasure in the travails of democracy in the world's greatest hectorer on the subject. Some shed crocodile tears about America's decline and President Obama's failure to attend a recent summit in Asia.
But whatever people's views of America,...