Who could have predicted the rise of China in such a short few years? It has beaten poverty like no other nation on earth. Remarkably quickly some of the big cities of China have the feel and look of great world cities. Make no mistake the people of Chinese origin in places like Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Canada, Thailand and Holland feel the warm glow of China's rise in the world.

Only a few years before the name of China were synonymous with poverty, famine, illiteracy, pogroms, mass immigration and wars. It's true China has a long way to go before it achieves anything resembling institutions in Germany or Norway. Inequality, injustice and lack of democracy continue to darken China's great achievements. Europe should remember it over a 100 years to reach this point. With critical dialogue outside and within China such an outcome may be possible to imagine, perhaps, in a generation. In the meantime, let China have her day of celebrations.

There might be 200,000 participants, but I understand that only 30,000 spectators have been invited to the event and the rest are being encouraged to remain at home to watch it live. I wonder how much of that is out of security concerns and how much is a desire to avoid embarrassment from a lack of enthusiasm.