More than 45 years ago, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the tumultuous Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which led to the destruction of millions of Chinese lives.

The United States has recently, and repeatedly, made clear that its new defense policy is to put greater emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, with a view to playing a leadership role in Asia, to China's evident discomfiture.

The re-election of Ma Ying-jeou was welcomed in China and brought a collective sigh of relief in the world's capitals, with congratulations pouring into Taiwan from the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia and Singapore.

In July 2009, China's Foreign Ministry made a demand of the American embassy: Stop making measurements of air pollution in Beijing available to ordinary Chinese since they conflicted with official data and could lead to “confusion” among the public and undesirable “social consequences.”

The death of Kim Jong Il caused Japanese Premier Yoshihiko Noda to shift the focus of his discussions in Beijing from bilateral issues to North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had a checkered relationship with Beijing but one that was solidified in the last year and a half of his life, when he visited China three times in 13 months and sought, and obtained, China's acceptance of his youngest son as his political heir.

Outside of Taiwan, no one is watching the presidential elections slated for Jan. 14 more closely than people in China. And it is not just the Chinese government that is doing it.

Last week, President Hu Jintao urged the Chinese navy to accelerate its transformation and “make extended preparations for warfare.”

Last May, to mark its 100th birthday, the University of Hong Kong held a centenary dialogue via a video link with the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, barely six months after her release from prolonged years of house arrest.

Quietly, without much notice, the world's population crept past the 7 billion mark on Oct. 31, according to the United Nations. The majority of people live on one continent, Asia, with two countries, China and India, accounting for almost 37 percent of the total.