Antoaneta Becker

As the West calls on Chi­na to join an oil em­bar­go on Iran, the Asian gi­ant con­tin­ues to stick to the mid­dle road.

Pres­i­dent Hu Jin­tao says Chi­na and West en­gag­ing in cul­tur­al war, and the Chi­nese should in­crease cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion.

As the US dol­lar’s val­ue con­tin­ues to drop, Chi­na looks to in­vest in gold for sta­bil­i­ty.

New­ly rich Chi­nese go to Eu­rope to buy lux­u­ry goods and prop­er­ty but Chi­nese of­fi­cials want them to spend more at home.

In Libya alone, Chi­na had to repa­tri­ate 36,000 work­ers at a cost of $3bn, lead­ing to scep­ti­cism about risky in­vest­ments.

His­tor­i­cal­ly, a Eu­ro­pean has led the in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nan­cial body, but emerg­ing economies want that to change.

Al­though re­lieved with bin Laden’s death, many Chi­nese are scared where Wash­ing­ton will fo­cus its at­ten­tion next.

Ter­ri­to­r­i­al dis­putes be­tween Chi­na and Japan leave some coun­tries ner­vous, as Asian lead­ers meet in Viet­nam.