Alfred, if you look where China was 40 years ago and where it is now, will you see a difference?
You can focus on the following data: GDP, contribution in the global export, FDI...
Where was Chinese economy 40 years ago? Today China is the second largest economy in the world.
Its position as an economic power, combine with its military power is making a difference in the region and in the world.
Hope this will give you some food for thought? In the world of politics, forty years ago, suddenly, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were churning with a vicious crescendo with each countries power reaching the possibilities of a Vietnam War when diplomacy repositioned these countries, the world stage changed in the stars of international heavens, when President Nixon flew to China to (meet) palaver with Mao Zedong to help these critical events to transform China global playing field, while putting out the fire of bitterness and hate in order to reach a new and substantial leverage regarding both countries Moscow and Beijing. Forty years later, China’s economy is almost 25 times larger than it was when Nixon visited. But it’s still not quite as large as the U.S. economy was in 1972. The average per capita Chinese is also still desperately poor by U.S. standards. In 1972, China was still a rural nation. In 2012, China’s urban population was larger than its rural population for the first time in China’s history. That’s 4000 years later, not 40. Forty years later, China plays almost as big a role in world trade as the United States does. What will the next forty years bring?
References
Emerging money.com,(28, February, 2012). Nixon in China: 40 years later in graphs, Retrieved from http://emergingmoney.com/china/nixon-in-china-40-years-later-in-graphs/
Lieberthal, K. (21 February, 2012). Lessons of the 40 years since Nixon went to China, CNN.com, and Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/21/opinion/lieberthal-china-us-40-years/index.html