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 U.S. President Barack Obama's failure to attend a recent summit in Asia.
But whatever people's views of America, what is striking in many cases is their uncertainty and, at times, even pessimism about China's future.