Its challenge is of an entirely different kind. In a striking contrast to the Soviets, the Chinese are not a strong military power founded on a weak economy, but a powerful economy supporting a credible military force. It did not occupy Hong Kong but waited till its peaceful return, under the relevant treaty, to the mainland. It pursued the same policy even on the tiny Portuguese colony of Macau. It is relevant to recall that it was China which unilaterally withdrew from Indian territory after the 1962 border war.
China is an introvert, narcissist society.
It built the Great Wall to keep the uncultured, foreign barbarians out of their great middle kingdom . It lost the Opium War in 1840 as it had no worthwhile navy to fight back the British armada. There has always been a xenophobic strain inside the Chinese leadership. China s patriotism is rooted in a long, humiliating century during which foreign imperialists carved out spheres of influence, sold opium to the Chinese masses, enjoyed the protections of their own police and courts in their enclaves on Chinese soil and frequently punished the Chinese for some act of disobedience. Once a highly cultured and advanced society, China had become the sick man of Asia, a sheet of loose sand in the famous words of the first great Chinese leader, Sun Yat-sen.