[ZenGum]

The history of China, like very many other places, shows a pattern.
Some lean and hungry (usually nomadic) barbarians burst into an old, corrupt, decaying empire, trounce the demoralized armies, establish themselves as the new elite, and after a few generations of energy, lose their vitality to the seductive pleasures of the courtly life. The people become resentful or apathetic, the emperor indolent, indulgent and isolated, the barons squabble among themselves ... then the hoof-beats are heard coming across the border once more.

And so I smile a little every time I see a fat Chinese person. You're getting soft and luxurious, I think to myself. You're no longer lean and hungry. You've got enough to get by and you've got enough to lose that you won't try anything reckless or desperate. You may outdo me in business but you're not going to nuke the world in an ideological rage. I can share a planet with people like this.