i think many of the people here who have commented don't know what "China" is...
or, perhaps...i just have a strange definition. bear with me, for a little bit; i'm not trying to change what people believe in... just listen, and maybe walk away with something new...
i suppose, in the modern world, china has been defined as a country. and included within that definition is the people who live there, the culture, their economy (and how it affects the rest of the world), and perhaps most importantly... its government.
i, however, have always held the meaning of china very differently. consider that there are over 60 different races in china. in the history of china, there have been several dozen dynasties (though some of them are hard to separate fact from myth). each dynasty (more or less) have always fought and held the central lands of china, as it has always been the cultural center of the east. as people mix, it becomes hard to distinguish the boundaries between many of these races, and they eventuallly get swallowed up by the "han" people...
then, the europeans (with their love of categorizing and classifying) came and grouped all of the people together under a simple term..."chinese"
i suppose, what i'm trying to say...is that the western world has labelled "china" as a country, with a culture, with a people. not to say that the classification was poorly done; but rather it didn't quite fit perfectly. just like it is impossible to wholly translate some words in english to a different language. to me (and many chinese), however...what flag we hang, and what tongue we speak has always been something fickle. our culture and our way of thinking has learned to adapt to the instability that has always been a part of that piece of land. i am chinese, although i was not born there; nor have i ever stepped foot on the soil. i know little of their history; i barely speak the language, and i cannot read or write in chinese.
to me, i suppose, china isn't a place...its not a country, and it is certainly not a government. these things have been so inconsistent that they don't provide a very good description of "chinese." how does merely 90 years of communism define china over the last 3000 years of its history? instead, i define it as a tragic story about a tragic people... it is the millions of people that have fled their homes, forced to start a new life elsewhere; and the billions of people who could not flee... and live a despondent life within a corrupt government (whether it be the communists of today, or the emperors of the past). chinese is whoever looks in their history and can tell a similar tragedy... and china is the bond that relates us together, whether we like it or not...
the communist today in china will someday be gone... much as any of the other powerful dynasties that have ruled in china. the damage they cause is lamentable, yet we will all persevere...
hmm...sorry, perhaps i got a little mystical there... but, to address some of the topics earlier...
no, china cannot continue at the rate that they are expanding for very long. as with any undeveloped country, you start with very cheap labor (african slaves in the americas) and you build a cheap manual labor work force. you start with destroying your natural resources around you, and exhausting the environment (coal mines, deforestation, fossil fuels)... you start with little civil rights to the people and much corruption in your government.
...and, as your people beome more educated, and move away from low class into the middle class... they start complaining. as enough people rise, you hope that you strike a deal with the government and you solve things via reform (reformation, civil rights, women's suffrage, so much can be listed here)...
the country grows up in steps. the people cannot suddenly change from poor uneducated farmers (this was the results of mao's cultural revolution) to educated and world/political savy intellectuals in only one or two generations. but, china is making progress; and someday, the people of china will overthrow the communist government as they once did the ching.
as far as stealing, again those are concepts of the west. the west cannot comprehend how it can be moral to take someone else's hard work, and simply copy it without following the rules set by the USPTO; JUST AS the people in china simply cannot comprehend why they have to give someone halfway around the world money in order to watch a movie~ especially when no one else around them does. it is again, a difference in the culture so wide that it cannot be bridged in a short matter of time. certainly, there are sly individuals/businessmen in china who may "hide" behind this excuse; but i think it goes a bit far to say that china is a country of a billion thieves.
i think a growing china could be a good thing. it means the people of china will continue to advance economically, which promotes further education and more exposure to the western world. it will push the scientists, engineers, doctors, and other professionals in china (not the politicians) to look to the west and ask themselves, "hey, why aren't we like that?" it will challenge the propaganda, and the censorship in that country, and encourage individual and free thinking. and someday, perhaps after much bloodshed, the leaders of china will have to join the modern free world. all it takes are some chinese versions of the great forefathers that the americas have have benefit from.
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