China's bright future Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

After the US announced on Monday that it will not send government officials to the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Australia announced to follow suit on Wednesday. China will respond diplomatically. But Chinese society must be aware that the US and Australia dare not even publicly label their acts as "diplomatic boycotts," and they will not cause any substantial damage to China. The competition between China and the US is destined to last for at least several decades. During this period, similar frictions may increase, but they generally belong to "smack talk" and do not have an impact on the most critical indicator of the comparison of strengths between China and the US.

How China responds to such harassment and provocations by the US and the West is one thing, and it is totally another that the entire Chinese society should strategically despise these provocations. Our response is a way that maintains the balance of China's development environment, but the most fundamental thing should be development itself. Development is the fundamental driving force for changing China's strategic situation and turning its competition with the US from being passive to active.

No matter how China debates with the US and its major allies in terms of public opinion, China's greatest attention must first be placed on continuing to develop the economy and enhance China's overall strength. What the West often refers to as China's "reputation" is not as important to us as they have believed. 

Not to mention their "diplomatic boycott." What harm can they cause to China even if they make efforts to hinder their athletes from coming to the Beijing Games? What they fear most is that China's economy would surpass that of the US. We will move forward step by step and eventually surpass the US. That will make some US political elites feel desperate.

A stronger Chinese economy will have influence on a wide scale. First, the Chinese people's confidence will become firmer. If China becomes the world's largest market, the position will be transformed into a lever that shapes the manners of countries toward China. This will help reconstruct the world's understanding of China and impose economic constraints on various anti-China forces. Hollywood is now careful not to insert contents with anti-China factors or contents that would be regarded to humiliate China in its movies, because these movies need the Chinese market. This effect will spread in various ways.

In addition to performing well in the economy, the national defense power in the overall national strength is of vital importance. Economic development has contributed more defense funds and cutting-edge technologies, while the US strategic suppression of China has provided a demand for rapid upgrades in defense capabilities. China needs to work hard to commit itself to the modernization of its national defense. In the foreseeable future, the scale of China's military expenditure should be raised to a higher level, so should its strategic deterrence, in a bid to realize the military superiority over the US that can be clearly identified by the outside world in offshore areas. This will help eventually eradicate the possibility of US military intervention across the Taiwan Straits. 

We hope that the Taiwan question will be resolved peacefully and the South China Sea will become calm. But we must prepare for the worst-case scenario of military conflicts with the US in these areas. China's military expenditure will eventually reach more than half of the US', and China's nuclear power must be strengthened to a level where the US dares not even think about nuclear blackmail against China.

In addition to building strength, China needs to continue to unite people and strengthen our consensus on the path to defending its national interests. This kind of support and consensus needs to be shaped in a relatively open public opinion environment. It must be achieved through the combination of China's good work and the inherent patriotism embedded in our society. We should prevent excessive information differences between the domestic and overseas public opinion fields, and never give the external anti-China forces the potential opportunity to impact China's internal unity.

China has great potential for development and ample capability to move forward steadily, with its hardworking people and the strong leadership of the CPC. What we need to do is to be practical and realistic in solving every problem to secure the final victory. For example, as there have been concerns about the economic situation recently, the government is expected to pool more attention toward economy, not only to comfort the people, but also to create a positive momentum to ensure an upward economy. 

China holds the initiative to make policies in terms of focusing less on superficiality, but more on developing economy, enhancing national defense and winning people's support. 

No one can coerce China, much less overwhelm China.