Commentary: Take heed of China’s economic achievements

Is it my imagination, or is China seizing the high ground?

I was recently in Hong Kong for the first time and was stunned by what a friendly, modern, prosperous city it is. Granted, Hong Kong is a child of Britain — the “jewel in the scepter,” perhaps. But it has functioned as a brilliant commercial and diplomatic role model for the rest of China.

Twenty years ago China was struggling to throw off the weight of its recent Maoist, Red Guards history. Twenty years ago China was poor. Not now. Now they are a force to be reckoned with.

Are we reckoning?

First, maybe, there was the Olympics. Did anyone think they could really pull it off? They did. Then, there was the moon shot — landing a rover on the moon. Did anyone think they could really pull it off? They did.

They have the world’s fastest supercomputer. They are the world’s largest exporter of goods, and its second-largest economy.

They recently bought a huge airport in central Spain to import Chinese goods into Europe. They just built the world’s longest railway — from the coast of China through Moscow to Spain. They’re building a railway through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. They just put together a huge international bank that includes Germany, Britain, France and Australia — but not us. They just visited Britain to rave reviews.

China is reinventing itself. The recent book, “The Fall and Rise of China,” details the sheer intelligence of this great nation. They realized that the West was the dominant system in the world because of its mastery of science, education, diplomacy and finance. And they turned their massive ship of state around 180 degrees.

Should we be taking more notice of all this? Or is it too nerve-racking?

STEVE DAVIDSON is Newport Beach psychologist.