Beijing isn’t worried

In Cabaret (1972), Bob Fosse’s film adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin, a handsome young member of the Hitler Youth stands up at a roadside beer garden and inspires a group of young people to sing with great confidence the chilling number, “Tomorrow belongs to me.” A couple of elderly Germans sink their heads with furrowed brows. That scene crossed my mind when a handsome young Chinese scholar told me last week in Beijing, almost as a matter of fact, as an elder next to him wore an amused look, “Today the United States is Number One economy, China is Number Two; by 2020 China will be Number One.” Tomorrow, he was sure, belongs to him.

Read Full Story>>