China has grown into a trading giant, but recent concerns over the safety of Chinese food and drugs have increased worries that China’s production may have outpaced the country’s policing capacity.

Despite their deep economic ties, animosity between China and Japan periodically resurfaces over territorial, historical, and economic disputes.

China is dealing with growing signs of social unrest and a budding civil society, but the central government’s power grip leaves little room for democracy.

Chinese leaders face the dilemma of continuing their country’s staggering economic growth while spreading its benefits to the hundreds of millions of rural poor. Beijing hopes its "peaceful rise" pol…