A question I have

Originally posted by pikeshot1600 Maju: I doubt that China is popular with her neighbors.  Many of them may be looking at the growth of Chinese economic strength and military spending with trepidation.  How popular do you think China is in Tibet?

Technically Tibet is not a "neighbour" but a part of China, as much as Northern Ireland is part of the UK or Chechnya part of Russia.

In general, I'd say that, with the exceptions of Japan and partly Taiwan, China is not so impopular among its neighbours. Chinese minorities may become the scapegoat on occasion (like in Solomon Islands now) but that is not anti-China reaction but rather an internal ethnic issue of that country.

Even South Korea has better relations with Beijing than with Tokyo!

Historically, Eastern cultures tend to coalesce around a center.  Korea, northern Indo-China and others (even to a small degree Japan) have at times been under strong Chinese influence, at least culturally, and sometimes drawn into China's orbit due to her power.  Korea, and perhaps much later, Japan, may be so aligned at some time. They will put up with it.  It does not mean the center is popular. The more powerful China grows the less popular she will be.

China has been the center of East Asia in all history (except the last two centuries maybe). I don't think that will change: China has shown an ability to recover from much harder challenges for more than 4,000 years. I wouldn't understimate Chinese might, specially, because unlike Nordamericans, they cultivate the virtues of modesty and patience.

China anyhow, may be more popular beyond its region: anyone that is a balance to US hegemony will be welcomed anywhere.