WHAT are we to make of China these days?

Trading partner? Adversary? Dynamic and growing economic powerhouse? Ruthless predator? An ancient land justifiably proud of its culture and accomplishments? An arrogant neo-imperialistic superpower? Superb long-term planners? Geniuses? Tyrants? A serious threat to the United States?

Or – perhaps – all of the above?

One thing is certain, China’s leaders know where they want to take their country ... and they will do just about anything to get there. They feel – with some justification – that their nation was ruthlessly exploited and beaten down for far too long, and now the time has come when it can reclaim its rightful place in the world.

And who can really argue with that? Why shouldn’t the leaders of every country do all they can to make their nation the best on earth, the “shining city on a hill,” if you like? America has certainly done this, and when we’ve done it right, the world has benefited.

When it is done wrong, however...

As International News Editor of the Variety, I probably read more stories from the People’s Daily than most people on Guam. One thing that comes through clearly is a strong nationalism – a sense of self-perceived Chinese superiority. It seems at times remarkably similar to the attitude of those Americans who carry on with complete conviction about “American exceptionalism,” without having the slightest idea what the lives of people in other countries are really like.

History has shown us time and time again that this type of nationalism can be very dangerous.

Here on Guam, people know this well. Occupation was not a happy thing ... whether it was by Spanish conquistadors so sure they were bringing the light of God to benighted savages that killing most of them was somehow for their own good, or, more recently, by Japanese troops so caught up in their own ultra nationalistic delusions that they forgot their own humanity, and were able to carry out unspeakable atrocities.

The people of Tibet now know it too. As do Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region, members of banned religious groups like the Falungong, or dissident artists such as Ai Weiwei ... not to mention all the people who have to work in near slave-like conditions to fuel the engine of China’s economic growth ... and our hunger for the iPads, cell phones, computers, shirts and toys they can produce for us at a fraction of the price required when the manufacturers have to pay their workers a dignified, living wage.

The two times I’ve interviewed the influential Japanese parliamentarian, Ms. Sanae Takaichi, she went out of her way to warn us about certain Chinese activities. Last fall, it was a new law that basically makes all Chinese citizens – everywhere – soldiers in the event of conflict. This year it was espionage – what Ms. Takaichi believes is a systematic and growing effort by the Chinese to spy on defense facilities of Japan and the United States.

Other reports suggest that the Chinese have been equally aggressive in their attempts to acquire the latest commercial technology and know-how.

For the most part, however, the Chinese haven’t had to do anything underhanded at all. Most of the technical know-how and financial power they have obtained has come not through espionage, but through the greed of our own financiers and industrialists. Had these Americans put the good of their own country ahead of their quest for profit at any cost, had they rejected anything-goes outsourcing and technology transfers, and kept more factories and jobs at home, I doubt very much that we would be nearly as worried about China as we are now.