ASIA China expands global influence

Positive feelings about the United States are dwindling in Asia.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- As students bustled in and out of her Mandarin language school, teacher Yue Xiaoyan said a desire to learn Chinese was awakening in the world.
"More and more people are starting to realize that Chinese is a really, really important language," Yue said.
From Jakarta to Vancouver and on to New Delhi and Chicago, surging interest in studying the Chinese language is just one gauge of the greater magnetic pull that China exerts after two decades of galloping economic growth. China is wielding more clout around the globe, shaping up as a counterweight to the United States in fields as divergent as diplomacy, trade and language.
China's negotiators are chalking up numerous free-trade accords with other countries, yanking the momentum from the United States, while Chinese leaders travel the globe to red-carpet welcomes from trading partners pulled by China's growth locomotive.
Growing economy
Economic vitality is at the heart of China's ascendancy, adding luster to a nation that was stagnant and impoverished only a generation ago. Now, China launches men into space, fields a modern military, finances some of the world's daring architecture and jostles for influence in the international market of ideas.
It still doesn't come close to challenging the United States in "soft power," that combination of cultural and economic vibrancy, marketing pizzazz, diplomatic heft and idealistic vision that made the last century one of American pre-eminence around the globe. But in odd and disparate corners, from the NBA courts, where Yao Ming dribbles and other players sport Chinese tattoos, to the Eiffel Tower illuminated in red to honor the Chinese New Year, the Middle Kingdom's influence is growing.
China's rise coincides with a decline in favorable public opinion toward the United States, particularly in Asia, that's seemed stark since the 2001 terrorist attacks and the American invasion of Iraq two years later.
"There is a lot of discontent about U.S. dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and around the globe. In some areas, China is seen as a balancing force and a nonthreatening one," said Anne-Marie Brady, a China expert at New Zealand's Canterbury University. "Any power that can stand up to the United States gets sympathy from many countries."