China's relative strength has attracted considerable attention. From Washington to Tokyo to Davos, global business leaders are hailing China's resilience and calling on Beijing to take a greater role in governing the global economy. Its model of state-driven capitalism, having weathered the storm, has won widespread praise (as well as criticism), and slowly Chinese leaders have taken note. Now there are signs that all the talk of the Chinese miracle has started to have an effect -- and not a good one.

The recent flurry of hostile words was capped by a haughty rebuttal of U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's criticism of Chinese economic policies that favor domestic companies over American and foreign competitors. Said the official Xinhua news agency: "Ironically, the United States is now turning around and accusing China of protecting its domestic companies. Burdened by high unemployment and facing mid-term elections in November, some people in the U.S. are trying to shift public attention from thorny political and economic issues to other countries. However, such irresponsible moves will prove to be unhelpful, and China will not accept being a scapegoat."

In short, China is brimming with confidence, and in recent weeks that self-confidence has turned into arrogance, with scorn for the U.S. There is a long legacy of Chinese distrust of the West. Today, Chinese nationalists cannot explicitly criticize Beijing, but they can indirectly attack the government by challenging the close relationship between the U.S. and China. For many in China, the U.S. is a corrupt nation that bears China no goodwill and will drag China down if Beijing doesn't find a way to distance itself from the American economic embrace.