While the world is slowly starting to recover from the worst economic recession in over half a century, China, one of the chief contributors to the rebound, is once again being targeted by the politicians and media outlets of some Western nations.

Sino-American relations have been strained since the US and the Republic of Korea (ROK) announced they would hold a joint military exercise in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. To top it, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has suggested setting up an international mechanism to settle the South China Sea territorial dispute.

China's National Bureau of Statistics has announced that the country's economic output rose by over 10 percent in each of the past two quarters even as much of the world economy remains mired in slow growth. Another indicator of China's rapid rebound from the global economic crisis is the sale of luxury goods, with the total amount rising to $9.4 billion by the end of last year.

The South China Sea is a body of water with rich natural resources and is of strategic significance to China in a geopolitical sense. The current standstill in resolving territorial disputes in the South China Sea is being exploited as needed pretext for outside interference.

A string of natural disasters has ravaged the mainland, from the serious southwestern drought early this year to the Yushu earthquake in April and widespread floods at present. These have tested the will of the Chinese.

The conventional wisdom is that once the value of the yuan is increased, the US trade deficit with China would start falling. This rationale has prompted many Americans to push for further, faster revaluation of the yuan even after China changed its currency policy.