Voices

"After attending the spectacular closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics and feeling the vibrations from hundreds of Chinese drummers pulsating in my own chest, I was tempted to conclude two things: 'Holy mackerel, the energy coming out of this country is unrivaled.' And, two: 'We are so cooked. Start teaching your kids Mandarin.'

"However, I've learned over the years not to over-interpret any two-week event. Olympics don't change history. They are mere snapshots - a country posing in its Sunday bests for all the world too see. But, as snapshots go, the one China presented through the Olympics was enormously powerful - and it's one that Americans need to reflect upon this election season."

"China's economy is now only a fourth the size of the $14 trillion U.S. economy, but given plausible growth rates in both countries, China's output will exceed America's in the 2020s, Goldman Sachsforecasts. But this is the wrong worry. By itself, a richer China does not make America poorer. Indeed, because there are so many more Chinese than Americans, average Chinese living standards may lag behind ours indefinitely. By Goldman's projections, average American incomes will still be twice Chinese incomes in 2050.

"The real threat from China lies elsewhere. It is that China will destabilize the world economy. It will distort trade, foster huge financial imbalances and trigger a contentious competition for scarce raw materials. Symptoms of instability have already surfaced, and if they grow worse, everyone -- including the Chinese -- may suffer."

"During my 10 years as British leader, I could see the accelerating pace of China's continued emergence as a major power. I gave speeches about China, I understood it analytically. But I did not feel it emotionally and therefore did not fully understand it politically.

"Since leaving office I have visited four times and will shortly return again. People ask what is the legacy of these Olympics for China? It is that they mark a new epoch -- an opening up of China that can never be reversed. It also means that ignorance and fear of China will steadily decline as the reality of modern China becomes more apparent.

"Power and influence is shifting to the East. In time will come India, too. Some see all this as a threat. I see it as an enormous opportunity. But we have to exercise a lot of imagination and eliminate any vestiges of historic arrogance."

"The US-China naval partnership remains weak..., The US Pacific Command's early efforts to draw Beijing into co-operation and transparency - such as naval exercises, visits and dialogue - have struggled. China last year canceled US ship visits to Hong Kong to show disapproval over US Tibet and Taiwan policies. This reinforced US mistrust. And China remains deeply suspicious of American intent."

"[A]uthoritarianism is much more deeply and insidiously entrenched in Chinese society than on the eve of Tiananmen. More alarming, the scope of Chinese Communist Party control over the media, religion, the judiciary and public dissent has broadened markedly since Hu Jintao took over as China's supreme leader in September 2004.

"The Party's authority over all aspects of human behavior is greater now than in 1989....

"...[D]espite China's signal disinterest in human rights (either for its own people or anywhere else), its equanimity toward nuclear proliferation, its insouciance with environmental degradation, and its border harassment of neighbors from Japan to India, from the South China Sea to Bhutan, and (of course) Taiwan, our leaders appear more comfortable facilitating its leadership than challenging it."

"This is a small thing for individuals.... We should make contributions to the country. I understand -- we are a socialist family."

"I was kind of fed up with all the visiting journalists talking negatively about China. I was at the press conference where they announced the new protest areas, and I thought, 'OK, let's give this a try.'

"They said anybody can protest, and, because I didn't want to involve anyone else, I said I'll do a protest with my son, who is 4. We'll protest against pollution....

"When I asked for an application form, they said, 'We don't have any. You're the first person to ask for one.'

"At one point, I said, 'Everyone has been very nice to me for the last two days. Would it be the same if I was a Chinese citizen?' They said, 'Chinese people don't like to protest. They like to go to institutions and collaborate to find solutions.'"

"We hope you will bear in mind the vigour and vitality of Beijing and the co-host cities, bear in mind the Chinese people who are deeply faithful to the Olympic Movement, and bear in mind the smile and dedication of the volunteers."

"This is incredibly dramatic for a global perception of China, and also for China's self-perception [that] it can handle something on this scale.... It's a kind of financial coming-of-age. It'll be an important marker, probably in a positive direction, as far as we can tell at the moment."

"In truth, some of the worst instincts of the old China have poked through the dazzle, most egregiously in the substitution of the pretty little girl in a red dress....

"Those incidents have been ominously familiar to anyone who experienced the make-believe of the Mao years. But in reaching for a balanced view of the Games, there has been something else to borrow from the Cultural Revolution, something that kept me sanguine amid the persecution and chaos presided over by Mao.

"Ironically enough, it was something taken from his Little Red Book... In condemning the West, he said, the Chinese should be careful to distinguish between the "handful of capitalists and imperialists" ... and the ordinary people, who were China's friends.

"... Whatever propaganda gains the current Chinese leadership may have sought from their multibillion-dollar Olympic extravaganza , one thing that has been beyond stage-management has been the joy and pride of ordinary Chinese that have permeated the images from Beijing, speaking more powerfully than any propaganda could of the happiness that three decades of growing prosperity have brought to a people repressed by Mao."