The New York Times recently linked together several publicized decisions the Central leadership in China has made that indicate the country is beginning to realize the responsibilities that come with its growing economic power:

… the World Trade Organization has rebuffed China in an important case involving Chinese restrictions on imported books and movies. The Chinese government dropped explosive espionage charges against executives of a foreign mining giant, the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto, after a global corporate outcry. And on Thursday, the government said it had backed off another contentious plan to install censorship software on all new computers sold here.

Now, it’s tougher with China’s successes for it to cry that the colonialists are out to hobble it. In other words, it’s signed up to trade obligations that helped make its economy what it is today, and it’s going to have to honor those obligations or find itself taking a few steps backward as it has the several times in the last twenty years when it fobbed its collective nose at the rest of the world..

“Fifteen years ago, the mantra in China was, ‘We’re the victims of a system that’s stacked against us,’ ” said James V. Feinerman, an expert on Chinese law and policy at Georgetown University in Washington.

China’s entry into the world trading system, he said, is slowly helping to change the nation’s view of itself from that of an outsider to an insider with a stake in the global system’s success.

Read more here…