China state media: will we “have to face down the U.S.?”

Amid a flurry of both sorrowful and sober Sept. 11 retrospectives, a Chinese newspaper under communist party authority asks: "Will China have to face down the U.S.?"

"The 10th anniversary of 9/11 may be a chance for Americans to adjust their strategic positioning, at least psychologically," writes the Global Times, an English-language offshoot of the People's Daily.

"Verbal attacks on China before presidential elections, as seen in recent years, are leading the public to thinking that China should be regarded as an opponent or even an enemy. If this thinking becomes mainstream in the U.S., we cannot rule out the possibility that China might be forced to become an enemy of the U.S."

The editorial goes on to surmise that America "must feel uneasy about China's rise." However, it says, any "international anti-China alliance … is mission impossible." (I see what you did there, Global Times.)

Editorials in the Global Times are usually interpreted as more or less coherent with thinking in the communist party.

American hypocrisy or hubris is a recurrent theme in its editorials, though the paper recently published an article pointing out the superficiality in much of China's anti-Western sentiment.

But, thankfully, American public figures remain too stately to haphazardly label China as "the enemy."