HONG KONG — After behaving in an assertive, sometimes arrogant, fashion through most of 2010, when it at various times took on the United States, Europe and Japan, both Beijing and the people of China appear to recognize the need for greater caution and restraint in the coming year. For one thing, President Hu Jintao is scheduled to visit the U.S. in a few weeks, so China will not want to pick a fight with Washington.

China genuinely realizes that despite its rapid growth in the last three decades, it is still far weaker than the U.S., economically as well as militarily.

A Chinese official, Le Yucheng, director general of the Policy Planning Department of the Foreign Ministry, acknowledged that "China is far behind many developed countries, let alone the United States."