And it is partly with an eye to a rising China that India now shows signs of change.
Currently, the bloc is walking a tightrope between a rising China and an America that is reasserting its status as an Asia-Pacific power.
It wasn't even about more down-to-earth but vital matters such as how to forge a new relationship with rising China, or rejuvenate the longstanding one with Japan.
Since then, two events, the Beijing Olympics later that year and the Shanghai World Expo of 2010, might have served as coming-out parties for a rising China.
North-east Asia, meanwhile, was left trying to manage an awkward five-way balance between a rising China, a weakened Russia, a distracted America, an aspiring South Korea and an uncertain Japan.
As a young member of a Foreign Relations Committee, I wrote and I said and I believed then what I believe now: That a rising China is a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America and the world writ large.
If costs are rising in China, the article suggests that companies consider other countries when establishing new manufacturing facilities.
And wage growth in Mexico is flat, while it is rising in China.
With costs rising in China, manufacturing in America has become a good bet.
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Second, as Shell President John Hofmeister pointed out in his testimony, prices are shooting skyward in part because of rising demand in China and India, the rising cost of materials and labor, and international events, such as supply disruptions in the Niger Delta.
Central bankers in China have been lobbying the government to let it do more to combat rising inflation in China.
They know that Russia has its own anxieties about China's rising power, and that China and Russia both regard their ties with America as considerably more important than China-Russia relations.
He also saw that rising incomes in China meant an increase in seafood consumption there.
Rising demand in China and elsewhere will force oil prices up over the long haul.
Faced with rising wages within China, some companies are shifting resources elsewhere to keep costs down.
Japan's current-account surplus in February was 46% bigger than a year earlier, partly thanks to rising exports to China.
This came on the heels of an influx of clothing and footwear manufacturers seeking relief from rising costs in China.
This trend, says McKinsey, is likely to continue in the face of a rising India and China and Internet-mediated price competition.
Mr. Shultz is not an alarmist about the rising power of China.
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On Friday, I was interviewed on NPR about rising prices in China.
With a over a billion people and rising prosperity, China is an irresistible market for the world's largest manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
Unlike past rising powers, China is not expansionist, a reality that is sometimes obscured in discussions of its assertiveness in settling territorial claims.
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The trend reflects rising expectations among China's workers, who are seeking out higher pay even as they show less inclination to work in factories.
Rising pay in China has forced companies to find less-costly production locales, especially for goods that require armies of laborers such as apparel, shoes and linens.
It has also been beset by rising inflation in China, which is forcing the government to continue its monetary tightening policy which is impacting the auto-sales growth.
Rising costs in China have cast a shadow over many businesses in the country, and are seen as eroding its attractiveness for foreign investment, especially for labor-intensive manufacturers.
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Rising demand in China (and other emerging economies, such as India) is likely to keep fuel prices high for the foreseeable future, because global spare capacity is currently tight.
Rising housing costs in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou have exacerbated the problem of rising inequality in China, as the major city centers become unaffordable to many middle class and lower-middle class Chinese.
Cambodia is a major producer of clothing and shoes for Western buyers, and has benefited in recent years as rising wages in China have pushed some companies to shift orders to lower-cost countries.
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